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THE  EDINBURGH   LECTURE  SERIES 

The 
EDINBURGH  LECTURES 
ON  MENTAL  SCIENCE 


BY 


T.    TROWARD 

LATE     DIVISIONAL    JUDGE,     PUNJAB 
AUTHOR   OF    "BIBLE    MYSTERY   AND    BIBLE    MEANING* 


ifibej*  et  amor  J^crita^  et  fiobuc 


NEW  YORK 

ROBERT   M.  McBRIDE   &  CO. 
1920 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
T.     TROWARD 


Second  Printing,  December,  igi^ 
Third  Printing,  March,   iqif 
Fourth  Printing,   March,   jgiS 
Fifth  Printing,  April,   19 19 
Sixth  Printing,  August,  igzo 


5>F 


THE     WRITER 

AFFECTIONATELY     DEDICATES 

THIS     LITTLE     VOLUME 

TO 

HIS     WIFE 


r 


;? 


CONTENTS. 


VAGE 

I. — Spirit  and  Matter x 

II. — The  Higher  Mode  of  Intelligence  Controls 

THE  Lower 8 

III. — The  Unity  of  the  Spirit 17 

IV. — Subjective  and  Objective  Mind        .        .        .  ai 
V. — Further  Considerations  Regarding  Subjec- 
tive AND  Objective  Mind      ....  29 

VI. — The  Law  of  Growth 4° 

VII. — Receptivity 4S 

VIII. — Reciprocal    Action    of   the   Universal  and 

Individual  Minds 55 

IX. — Causes  and  Conditions 63 

X. — Intuition 7^ 

XI. — Healing 74 

XII.— The  Will 83 

XIII. — In  Touch  with  Sub-conscious  Mind         .       .  94 

XIV.— The  Body 107 

XV.— The  Soul  .........  117 

XVI.— The  Spirit       .       .       .       .       .       .       .       .126 


FOREWORD. 


This  book  contains  the  substance  of  a  oourse  of 
lectures  recently  given  by  the  writer  in  the  Queen 
Street  Hall,  Edinburgh.  Its  purpose  is  to  indicate 
the  Natural  Principles  governing  the  relation  be- 
tween Mental  Action  and  Material  Conditions,  and 
thus  to  afford  the  student  an  intelligible  starting- 
point  for  the  practical  study  of  the  subject. 

T.  T. 

March,  1904. 


The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on 
Mental  Science. 

I. 

SPIRIT   AND    MATTER. 

In  commencing  a  course  of  lectures  on  Mental  Sci- 
ence, it  is  somewhat  difficult  for  the  lecturer  to  fix 
upon  the  best  method  of  opening  the  subject.  It  can 
be  approached  from  many  sides,  each  with  some 
peculiar  advantage  of  its  own;  but,  after  careful  delib- 
eration, it  appears  to  me  that,  for  the  purpose  of 
the  present  course,  no  better  starting-point  could  be 
selected  than  the  relation  between  Spirit  and  Matter. 
I  select  this  starting-point  because  the  distinction — or 
what  we  believe  to  be  such — between  them  is  one  with 
which  we  are  so  familiar  that  I  can  safely  assume  its 
recognition  by  everybody;  and  I  may,  therefore,  at 
once  state  this  distinction  by  using  the  adjectives 
which  we  habitually  apply  as  expressing  the  natural 
opposition  between  the  two — living  spirit  and  dead 
matter.  These  terms  express  our  current  impression 
of  the  opposition  between  spirit  and  matter  with  suf- 

j 


2     The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

ficient  accuracy,  and  considered  only  from  the  point 
of  view  of  outward  appearances  this  impression  is  no 
doubt  correct.  The  general  consensus  of  mankind  is 
right  in  trusting  the  evidence  of  our  senses,  and  any 
system  which  tells  us  that  we  are  not  to  do  so  will 
never  obtain  a  permanent  footing  in  a  sane  and 
healthy  community.  There  is  nothing  wrong  in  the 
evidence  conveyed  to  a  healthy  mind  by  the  senses  of 
a  healthy  body,  but  the  point  where  error  creeps  in  is 
when  we  come  to  judge  of  the  meaning  of  this  testi- 
mony. We  are  accustomed  to  judge  only  by  external 
appearances  and  by  certain  limited  significances  which 
we  attach  to  words;  but  when  we  begin  to  enquire 
into  the  real  meaning  of  our  words  and  to  analyse  the 
causes  which  give  rise  to  the  appearances,  we  find  our 
old  notions  gradually  falling  off  from  us,  until  at  last 
we  wake  up  to  the  fact  that  we  are  living  in  an 
entirely  different  world  to  that  we  formerly  recog- 
nized. The  old  limited  mode  of  thought  has  imper- 
ceptibly slipped  away,  and  we  discover  that  we  have 
stepped  out  into  a  new  order  of  things  where  all  is 
liberty  and  life.  This  is  the  work  of  an  enlightened 
intelligence  resulting  from  persistent  determination 
to  discover  what  truth  really  is  irrespective  of  any 
preconceived  notions  from  whatever  source  derived, 
the  determination  to  think  honestly  for  ourselves 
instead  of  endeavouring  to  get  our  thinking  done 
for  us.    Let  us  then  commence  by  enquiring  what  we 


spirit  and  Matter.  3 

really  mean  by  the  livingness  which  we  attribute  to 
spirit  and  the  deadness  which  we  attribute  to  matter. 
At  first  we  may  be  disposed  to  say  that  livingness 
consists  in  the  power  of  motion  and  deadness  in  its 
absence;  but  a  little  enquiry  into  the  most  recent 
researches  of  science  will  soon  show  us  that  this  dis- 
tinction does  not  go  deep  enough.  It  is  now  one  of  the 
fully-established  facts  of  physical  science  that  no  atom 
of  what  we  call  "dead  matter"  is  without  motion.  On 
the  table  before  me  lies  a  solid  lump  of  steel,  but  in 
the  light  of  up-to-date  science  I  know  that  the  atoms 
of  that  seemingly  inert  mass  are  vibrating  with  the 
most  intense  energy,  continually  dashing  hither  and 
thither,  impinging  upon  and  rebounding  from  one 
another,  or  circling  round  like  miniature  solar  sys- 
tems, with  a  ceaseless  rapidity  whose  complex  activity 
is  enough  to  bewilder  the  imagination.  The  mass, 
as  a  mass,  may  lie  inert  upon  the  table;  but  so  far 
from  being  destitute  of  the  element  of  motion  it  is 
the  abode  of  the  never-tiring  energy  moving  the  par- 
ticles with  a  swiftness  to  which  the  speed  of  an 
express  train  is  as  nothing.  It  is,  therefore,  not  the 
mere  fact  of  motion  that  is  at  the  root  of  the  distinc- 
tion which  we  draw  instinctively  between  spirit  and 
matter;  we  must  go  deeper  than  that.  The  solution 
of  the  problem  will  never  be  found  by  comparing  Life 
with  what  we  call  deadness,  and  the  reason  for  this 
will  become  apparent  later  on ;  but  the  true  key  is  to 


4     The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

be  found  by  comparing  one  degree  of  livingness  with 
another.  There  is,  of  course,  one  sense  in  which 
the  quahty  of  Hvingness  does  not  admit  of  degrees; 
but  there  is  another  sense  in  which  it  is  entirely  a 
question  of  degree.  We  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  Hv- 
ingness of  a  plant,  but  we  realize  that  it  is  something 
very  different  from  the  livingness  of  an  animal. 
Again,  what  average  boy  would  not  prefer  a  fox- 
terrier  to  a  goldfish  for  a  pet?  Or,  again,  why  is  it 
that  the  boy  himself  is  an  advance  upon  the  dog? 
The  plant,  the  fish,  the  dog,  and  the  boy  are  all  equally 
alive;  but  there  is  a  difference  in  the  quality  of  their 
livingness  about  which  no  one  can  have  any  doubt, 
and  no  one  would  hesitate  to  say  that  this  difference 
is  in  the  degree  of  intelligence.  In  whatever  way  we 
turn  the  subject  we  shall  always  find  that  what  we 
call  the  "  livingness  "  of  any  individual  life  is  ulti- 
mately measured  by  its  intelligence.  It  is  the  posses- 
sion of  greater  intelligence  that  places  the  animal 
higher  in  the  scale  of  being  than  the  plant,  the  man 
higher  than  the  animal,  the  intellectual  man  higher 
than  the  savage.  The  increased  intelligence  calls  into 
activity  modes  of  motion  of  a  higher  order  corre- 
sponding to  itself.  The  higher  the  intelligence,  the 
more  completely  the  mode  of  motion  is  under  its  con- 
trol; and  as  we  descend  in  the  scale  of  intelligence, 
the  descent  is  marked  by  a  corresponding  increase  in 
automatic  motion  not  subject  to  the  control  of  a  self- 


spirit  and  Matter.  5 

conscious  intelligence.  This  descent  is  gradual  from 
the  expanded  self-recognition  of  the  highest  human 
personality  to  that  lowest  order  of  visible  forms 
which  we  speak  of  as  "  things,"  and  from  which  self- 
recognition  is  entirely  absent. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  livingness  of  Life  consists 
in  intelligence — in  other  words,  in  the  power  of 
Thought;  and  we  may  therefore  say  that  the  dis- 
tinctive quality  of  spirit  is  Thought,  and,  as  the  oppo- 
site to  this,  we  may  say  that  the  distinctive  quality 
of  matter  is  Form.  We  cannot  conceive  of  matter 
without  form.  Some  form  there  must  be,  even 
though  invisible  to  the  physical  eye ;  for  matter,  to  be 
matter  at  all,  must  occupy  space,  and  to  occupy  any 
particular  space  necessarily  implies  a  corresponding 
form.  For  these  reasons  we  may  lay  it  down  as  a 
fundamental  proposition  that  the  distinctive  quality 
of  spirit  is  Thought  and  the  distinctive  quality  of  mat- 
ter is  Form.  This  is  a  radical  distinction  from  which 
important  consequences  follow,  and  should,  therefore, 
be  carefully  noted  by  the  student. 

Form  implies  extension  in  space  and  also  limita- 
tion within  certain  boundaries.  Thought  implies 
neither.  When,  therefore,  we  think  of  Life  as  exist- 
ing in  any  particular  form  we  associate  it  with  the 
idea  of  extension  in  space,  so  that  an  elephant  may 
be  said  to  consist  of  a  vastly  larger  amount  of  living 
substance  than  a  mouse.     But  if  we  think  of  Life  as 


6     The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

the  fact  of  livingness  we  do  not  associate  it  with  any 
idea  of  extension,  and  we  at  once  reahze  that  the 
mouse  is  quite  as  much  ahve  as  the  elephant,  notwith- 
standing the  difference  in  size.  The  important  point 
of  this  distinction  is  that  if  we  can  conceive  of  any- 
thing as  entirely  devoid  of  the  element  of  extension 
in  space,  it  must  be  present  in  its  entire  totality  any- 
where and  everywhere — that  is  to  say,  at  every  point 
""oTspace  simultaneously.  The  scientific  definition  of 
time  is  that  it  is  the  period  occupied  by  a  body  in 
passing  from  one  given  point  in  space  to  another, 
and,  therefore,  according  to  this  definition,  when  there 
is  no  space  there  can  be  no  time ;  and  hence  that  con- 
ception of  spirit  which  realizes  it  as  devoid  of  the 
element  of  space  must  realize  it  as  being  devoid  of  the 
element  of  time  also;  and  we  therefore  find  that  the 
conception  of  spirit  as  pure  Thought,  and  not  as  con- 
crete Form,  is  the  conception  of  it  as  subsisting  per- 
fectly independently  of  the  elements  of  time  and  space. 
From  this  it  follows  that  if  the  idea  of  anything  is 
conceived  as  existing  on  this  level  it  can  only  rep- 
resent that  thing  as  being  actually  present  here  and 
now.  In  this  view  of  things  nothing  can  be  remote 
from  us  either  in  time  or  space:  either  the  idea  is 
entirely  dissipated  or  it  exists  as  an  actual  present 
entity,  and  not  as  something  that  shall  be  in  the 
future,  for  where  there  is  no  sequence  in  time  there 
can  be  no  future.     Similarly  where  there  is  no  space 


spirit  and  Matter.  7 

there  can  be  no  conception  of  anything  as  being  at  a 
distance  from  us.  When  the  elements  of  time  and 
space  are  ehminated  all  our  ideas  of  things  must 
necessarily  be  as  subsisting  in  a  universal  here  and 
an  everlasting  now.  This  is,  no  doubt,  a  highly  ab- 
stract conception,  but  I  would  ask  the  student  to 
endeavour  to  grasp  it  thoroughly,  since  it  is  of  vital 
importance  in  the  practical  application  of  Mental  Sci- 
ence, as  will  appear  further  on. 

The  opposite  conception  is  that  of  things  express- 
ing themselves  through  conditions  of  time  and  space 
and  thus  establishing  a  variety  of  relations  to  other 
things,  as  of  bulk,  distance,  and  direction,  or  of  se- 
quence in  time.  These  two  conceptions  are  respec- 
tively the  conception  of  the  abstract  and  the  concrete, 
of  the  unconditioned  and  the  conditioned,  of  the  abso- 
lute and  the  relative.  They  are  not  opposed  to  each 
other  in  the  sense  of  incompatibility,  but  are  each  the 
complement  of  the  other,  and  the  only  reality  is  in  the 
combination  of  the  two.  The  error  of  the  extreme 
idealist  is  in  endeavouring  to  realize  the  absolute  with- 
out the  relative,  and  the  error  of  the  extreme  mate- 
rialist is  in  endeavouring  to  realize  the  relative  with- 
out the  absolute.  On  the  one  side  the  mistake  is  in 
trying  to  realize  an  inside  without  an  outside,  and  on 
the  other  in  trying  to  realize  an  outside  without  an 
inside ;  both  are  necessary  to  the  formation  of  a  sub- 

tantial  entity. 
3 


II. 

THE    HIGHER    MODE   OF    INTELLIGENCE 
CONTROLS    THE   LOWER. 

We  have  seen  that  the  descent  from  personaHty, 
as  we  know  it  in  ourselves,  to  matter,  as  we  know 
it  under  what  we  call  inanimate  forms,  is  a  gradual 
descent  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  from  that  mode 
of  being  which  is  able  to  realize  its  own  will-power 
as  a  capacity  for  originating  new  trains  of  causation 
to  that  mode  of  being  which  is  incapable  of  recog- 
nizing itself  at  all.  The  higher  the  grade  of  life,  the 
higher  the  intelligence;  from  which  it  follows  that 
the  supreme  principle  of  Life  must  also  be  the  ulti- 
mate principle  of  intelligence.  This  is  clearly  dem- 
onstrated by  the  grand  natural  order  of  the  universe. 
In  the  light  of  modern  science  the  principle  of  evolu- 
tion is  familiar  to  us  all,  and  the  accurate  adjustment 
existing  between  all  parts  of  the  cosmic  scheme  is  too 
self-evident  to  need  insisting  upon.  Every  advance 
in  science  consists  in  discovering  new  subtleties  of 
connection  in  this  magnificent  universal  order,  which 
already  exists  and  only  needs  our  recognition  to  bring 
it  into  practical  use.  If,  then,  the  highest  work  of 
the  greatest  minds  consists  in  nothing  else  than  the 
recognition  of  an  already  existing  order,  there  is  no 

i 


The  Higher  Mode  of  Intelligence.  9 

getting  away  from  the  conclusion  that  a  paramount 
intelHgence  must  be  inlierent  in  the  Life-Principle, 
which  manifests  itself  as  this  order;  and  thus  we 
see  that  there  must  be  a  great  cosmic  intelligence 
underlying  the  totality  of  things. 

The  physical  history  of  our  planet  shows  us  first 
an  incandescent  nebula  dispersed  over  vast  infinitudes 
of  space ;  later  this  condenses  into  a  central  sun  sur- 
rounded by  a  family  of  glowing  planets  hardly  yet 
consolidated  from  the  plastic  primordial  matter ;  then 
succeed  untold  millenniums  of  slow  geological  forma- 
tion ;  an  earth  peopled  by  the  lowest  forms  of  life, 
whether  vegetable  or  animal ;  from  which  crude  be- 
ginnings a  majestic,  unceasing,  unhurried,  forward 
movement  brings  things  stage  by  stage  to  the  condi- 
tion in  which  we  know  them  now.  Looking  at  this 
steady  progression  it  is  clear  that,  however  we  may 
conceive  the  nature  of  the  evolutionary  principle,  it 
unerringly  provides  for  the  continual  advance  of  the 
race.  But  it  does  this  by  creating  such  numbers  of 
each  kind  that,  after  allowing  a  wide  margin  for  all 
possible  accidents  to  individuals,  the  race  shall  still 
continue : — 

"  So  careful  of  the  type  it  seems 
So  careless  of  the  single  life." 

In  short,  we  may  say  that  the  cosmic  intelligence 
works  by  a  Law  of  Averages  w^hich  allows  a  wide 
margin  of  accident  and  failure  to  the  individual. 


10    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

But  the  progress  towards  higher  intelligence  is  al- 
ways in  the  direction  of  narrowing  down  this  margin 
of  accident  and  taking  the  individual  more  and  more 
out  of  the  law  of  averages,  and  substituting  the  law 
of  individual  selection.  In  ordinary  scientific  lan- 
guage this  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  The  repro- 
duction of  fish  is  on  a  scale  that  would  choke  the  sea 
with  them  if  every  individual  survived ;  but  the  mar- 
gin of  destruction  is  correspondingly  enormous,  and 
thus  the  law  of  averages  simply  keeps  up  the  normal 
proportion  of  the  race.  But  at  the  other  end  of  the 
scale,  reproduction  is  by  no  means  thus  enormously  in 
excess  of  survival.  True,  there  is  ample  margin  of 
accident  and  disease  cutting  off  numbers  of  human 
beings  before  they  have  gone  through  the  average 
duration  of  life,  but  still  it  is  on  a  very  different  scale 
from  the  premature  destruction  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands as  against  the  survival  of  one.  It  may,  there- 
fore, be  taken  as  an  established  fact  that  in  proportion 
as  intelligence  advances  the  individual  ceases  to  be 
subject  to  a  mere  law  of  averages  and  has  a  contin- 
ually increasing  power  of  controlling  the  conditions 
of  his  own  survival. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  there  is  a  marked  distinc- 
tion between  the  cosmic  intelligence  and  the  individ- 
ual intelligence,  and  that  the  factor  which  differen- 
tiates the  latter  from  the  former  is  the  presence  of 
individual  volition.    Now  the  business  of  Mental  Sci- 


The  Higher  Mode  of  Intelligence.  ii 

ence  is  to  ascertain  the  relation  of  this  individual 
power  of  volition  to  the  great  cosmic  law  which  pro- 
vides for  the  maintenance  and  advancement  of  the 
race;  and  the  point  to  be  carefully  noted  is  that  the 
power  of  individual  volition  is  itself  the  outcome  of 
the  cosmic  evolutionary  principle  at  the  point  where 
it  reaches  its  highest  level.  The  effort  of  Nature  has 
always  been  upwards  from  the  time  when  only  the 
lowest  forms  of  life  peopled  the  globe,  and  it  has  now 
culminated  in  the  production  of  a  being  with  a  mind 
capable  of  abstract  reasoning  and  a  brain  fitted  to  be 
the  physical  instrument  of  such  a  mind.  At  this  stage 
the  all-creating  Life-principle  reproduces  itself  in  a 
form  capable  of  recognizing  the  working  of  the  evo- 
lutionary law,  and  the  unity  and  continuity  of  purpose 
running  through  the  whole  progression  until  now  in- 
dicates, beyond  a  doubt,  that  the  place  of  such  a  being 
in  the  universal  scheme  must  be  to  introduce  the  oper- 
ation of  that  factor  which,  up  to  this  point,  has  been 
conspicuous  by  its  absence — the  factor,  namely,  of 
intelligent  individual  volition.  The  evolution  which 
has  brought  us  up  to  this  standpoint  has  worked  by 
a  cosmic  law  of  averages;  it  has  been  a  process  in 
which  the  individual  himself  has  not  taken  a  conscious 
part.  But  because  he  is  what  he  is,  and  leads  the  van 
of  the  evolutionary  procession,  if  man  is  to  evolve 
further,  it  can  now  only  be  by  his  own  conscious  co- 
operation with  the  law  which  has  brought  him  up  to 


12    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

the  standpoint  where  lie  is  able  to  realize  that  such  a 
law  exists.  His  evolution  in  the  future  must  be  by 
conscious  participation  in  the  great  work,  and  this 
can  only  be  effected  by  his  own  individual  intelligence 
and  effort.  It  is  a  process  of  intelligent  growth.  No 
one  else  can  grow  for  us:  we  must  each  grow  for 
ourselves ;  and  this  intelligent  growth  consists  in  our 
increasing  recognition  of  the  universal  law,  which  has 
brought  us  as  far  as  we  have  yet  got,  and  of  our  own 
individual  relation  to  that  law,  based  upon  the  fact 
that  we  ourselves  are  the  most  advanced  product  of  it. 
It  is  a  great  maxim  that  Nature  obeys  us  precisely  in 
proportion  as  we  first  obey  Nature.  Let  the  elec- 
trician try  to  go  counter  to  the  principle  that  electric- 
ity must  always  pass  from  a  higher  to  a  lower  poten- 
tial and  he  will  effect  nothing;  but  let  him  submit  in 
all  things  to  this  one  fundamental  law,  and  he  can 
make  whatever  particular  applications  of  electrical 
power  he  will. 

These  considerations  show  us  that  what  differen- 
tiates the  higher  from  the  lower  degree  of  intelligence 
is  the  recognition  of  its  own  self-hood,  and  the  more 
intelligent  that  recognition  is,  the  greater  will  be  the 
power.  The  lower  degree  of  self-recognition  is  that 
which  only  realizes  itself  as  an  entity  separate  from 
all  other  entities,  as  the  ego  distinguished  from  the 
non-ego.  But  the  higher  degree  of  self-recognition 
is  that  which,  realizing  its  own  spiritual  nature,  sees 


The  Higher  Mode  of  Intelligence.  13 

in  all  other  forms,  not  so  much  the  non-ego,  or  that 
which  is  not  itself,  as  the  altcr-cgo,  or  that  which  is 
itself  in  a  different  mode  of  expression.  Now,  it  is 
this  higher  degree  of  self-recognition  that  is  the 
power  by  which  the  Mental  Scientist  produces  his  re- 
sults. For  this  reason  it  is  imperative  that  he  should 
clearly  understand  the  difference  between  Form  and 
Being;  that  the  one  is  the  mode  of  the  relative  and 
the  mark  of  subjection  to  conditions,  and  that  the 
other  is  the  truth  of  the  absolute  and  is  that  which 
controls  conditions. 

Now  this  higher  recognition  of  self  as  an  individ- 
ualization of  pure  spirit  must  of  necessity  control  all 
modes  of  spirit  which  have  not  yet  reached  the  same 
level  of  self-recognition.  These  lower  modes  of  spirit 
are  in  bondage  to  the  law  of  their  own  being  because 
they  do  not  know  the  law ;  and,  therefore,  the  indi- 
vidual who  has  attained  to  this  knowledge  can  control 
them  through  that  law.  But  to  understand  this  we 
must  inquire  a  little  further  into  the  nature  of  spirit. 
I  have  already  shown  that  the  grand  scale  of  adapta- 
tion and  adjustment  of  all  parts  of  the  cosmic  scheme 
to  one  another  exhibits  the  presence  somewhere  of  a 
marvellous  intelligence  underlying  the  whole,  and  the 
question  is,  where  is  this  intelligence  to  be  found? 
Ultimately  we  can  only  conceive  of  it  as  inherent  in 
some  primordial  substance  which  is  the  root  of  all 
those  grosser  modes  of  matter  wdiich  are  known  to 


14   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

us,  whether  visible  to  the  physical  eye,  or  necessarily 
inferred  by  science  from  their  perceptible  effects.  It 
is  that  power  which,  in  every  species  and  in  every  in- 
dividual, becomes  that  which  that  species  or  individual 
is ;  and  thus  we  can  only  conceive  of  it  as  a  self-form- 
ing intelligence  inherent  in  the  ultimate  substance  of 
which  each  thing  is  a  particular  manifestation.  That 
this  primordial  substance  must  be  considered  as  self- 
forming  by  an  inherent  intelligence  abiding  in  itself 
becomes  evident  from  the  fact  that  intelligence  is  the 
essential  quality  of  spirit;  and  if  we  were  to  conceive 
of  the  primordial  substance  as  something  apart  from 
spirit,  then  we  should  have  to  postulate  some  other 
power  which  is  neither  spirit  nor  matter,  and  origi- 
nates both ;  but  this  is  only  putting  the  idea  of  a  self- 
evolving  power  a  step  further  back  and  asserting  the 
production  of  a  lower  grade  of  undifferentiated  spirit 
by  a  higher,  which  is  both  a  purely  gratuitous  assump- 
tion and  a  contradiction  of  any  idea  we  can  form  of 
undifferentiated  spirit  at  all.  However  far  back, 
therefore,  we  may  relegate  the  original  starting-point, 
we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that,  at  that  point, 
spirit  contains  the  primary  substance  in  itself,  which 
brings  us  back  to  the  common  statement  that  it  made 
everything  out  of  nothing.  We  thus  find  two  factors 
to  the  making  of  all  things.  Spirit  and — Nothing;  and 
the  addition  of  Nothing  to  Spirit  leaves  only  spirit: 
X  +  o  =  X. 


The  Higher  Mode  of  Intelligence.  15 

From  these  considerations  we  see  that  the  ultimate 
foundation  of  every  form  of  matter  is  spirit,  and 
hence  that  a  universal  intelligence  subsists  throughout 
Nature  inherent  in  every  one  of  its  manifestations. 
But  this  cryptic  intelligence  does  not  belong  to  the 
particular  form  excepting  in  the  measure  in  which  it 
is  physically  fitted  for  its  concentration  into  self-rec- 
ognizing individuality :  it  lies  hidden  in  that  primor- 
dial substance  of  which  the  visible  form  is  a  grosser 
manifestation.  This  primordial  substance  is  a  philo- 
sophical necessity,  and  we  can  only  picture  it  to  our- 
selves as  something  infinitely  finer  than  the  atoms 
which  are  themselves  a  philosophical  inference  of 
physical  science :  still,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  we 
may  conveniently  speak  of  this  primary  intelligence 
inherent  in  the  very  substance  of  things  as  the  Atomic 
Intelligence.  The  term  may,  perhaps,  be  open  to  some 
objections,  but  it  will  serve  our  present  purpose  as 
distinguishing  this  mode  of  spirit's  intelligence  from 
that  of  the  opposite  pole,  or  Individual  Intelligence. 
This  distinction  should  be  carefully  noted  because  it  is 
by  the  response  of  the  atomic  intelligence  to  the  indi- 
vidual intelligence  that  thought-power  is  able  to  pro- 
duce results  on  the  material  plane,  as  in  the  cure  of 
disease  by  mental  treatment,  and  the  like.  Intelli- 
gence manifests  itself  by  responsiveness,  and  the 
whole  action  of  the  cosmic  mind  in  bringing  the  evo- 
lutionary process  from  its  first  beginnings  up  to  its 


i6  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

present  human  stage  is  nothing  else  but  a  continual 
intelligent  response  to  the  demand  which  each  stage 
in  the  progress  has  made  for  an  adjustment  between 
itself  and  its  environment.  Since,  then,  we  have  rec- 
ognized the  presence  of  a  universal  intelligence  per- 
meating all  things,  we  must  also  recognize  a  corre- 
sponding responsiveness  hidden  deep  down  in  their 
nature  and  ready  to  be  called  into  action  when  ap- 
pealed to.  All  mental  treatment  depends  on  this 
responsiveness  of  spirit  in  its  lower  degrees  to  higher 
degrees  of  itself.  It  is  here  that  the  difference  be- 
tween the  mental  scientist  and  the  uninstructed  person 
comes  in ;  the  former  knows  of  this  responsiveness 
and  makes  use  of  it,  and  the  latter  cannot  use  it  be- 
cause he  does  not  know  it. 


III. 

THE    UNITY    OF   THE    SPIRIT. 

We  have  now  paved  the  way  for  understanding 
what  is  meant  by  "  the  unity  of  the  spirit."  In  the 
first  conception  of  spirit  as  the  underlying  origin  of 
all  things  we  see  a  universal  substance  which,  at  this 
stage,  is  not  differentiated  into  any  specific  forms. 
This  is  not  a  question  of  some  bygone  time,  but  sub- 
sists at  every  moment  of  all  time  in  the  innermost 
nature  of  all  being ;  and  when  we  see  this,  we  see  that 
the  division  between  one  specific  form  and  another 
has  below  it  a  deep  essential  unity,  which  acts  as  the 
supporter  of  all  the  several  forms  of  individuality 
arising  out  of  it.  And  as  our  thought  penetrates 
deeper  into  the  nature  of  this  all-producing  spiritual 
substance  we  see  that  it  cannot  be  limited  to  any  one 
portion  of  space,  but  must  be  limitless  as  space  itself, 
and  that  the  idea  of  any  portion  of  space  where  it 
is  not  is  inconceivable.  It  is  one  of  those  intuitive 
perceptions  from  which  the  human  mind  can  never 
get  away  that  this  primordial,  all-generating  living 
spirit  must  be  commensurate  with  infinitude,  and 
we  can  therefore  never  think  of  it  otherwise  than 
as  universal  or  infinite.     Now  it  is  a  mathematical 

17 


1 8   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

truth  that  the  infinite  must  be  a  unity.  You  can- 
not have  two  infinites,  for  then  neither  would  be 
infinite,  each  would  be  limited  by  the  other,  nor 
can  you  split  the  infinite  up  into  fractions.  The  in- 
finite is  mathematically  essential  unity.  This  is  a 
point  on  which  too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid,  for 
there  follow  from  it  the  most  important  consequences. 
Unity,  as  such,  can  be  neither  multiplied  nor  divided, 
for  either  operation  destroys  the  unity.  By  multiply- 
ing, we  produce  a  plurality  of  units  of  the  same  scale 
as  the  original ;  and  by  dividing,  we  produce  a  plural- 
ity of  units  of  a  smaller  scale ;  and  a  plurality  of  units 
is  not  unity  but  multiplicity.  Therefore  if  we  would 
penetrate  below  the  outward  nature  of  the  individual 
to  that  innermost  principle  of  his  being  from  which 
his  individuality  takes  its  rise^  we  can  do  so  only  by 
passing  beyond  the  conception  of  individual  existence 
into  that  of  the  unity  of  universal  being.  This  may 
appear  to  be  a  merely  philosophical  abstraction,  but 
the  student  who  would  produce  practical  results  must 
realize  that  these  abstract  generalizations  are  the 
foundation  of  the  practical  work  he  is  going  to  do. 

Now  the  great  fact  to  be  recognized  about  a  unity 
is  that,  because  it  is  a  single  unit,  wherever  it  is  at  all 
the  whole  of  it  must  be.  The  moment  we  allow  our 
mind  to  wander  off  to  the  idea  of  extension  in  space 
and  say  that  one  part  of  the  unit  is  here  and  another 
there,  we  have  descended  from  the  idea  of  unity  into 


The  Unity  of  the  Spirit.  19 

that  of  parts  or  fractions  of  a  single  unit,  which  is  to 
pass  into  the  idea  of  a  multipHcity  of  smaller  units, 
and  in  that  case  we  are  dealing  with  the  relative,  or 
the  relation  subsisting  between  two  or  more  entities 
which  are  therefore  limited  by  each  other,  and  so  have 
passed  out  of  the  region  of  simple  unity  which  is  the 
absolute.  It  is,  therefore,  a  mathematical  necessity 
that,  because  the  originating  Life-principle  is  infinite, 
it  is  a  single  unit,  and  consequently,  wherever  it  is  at 
all,  the  zvhole  of  it  must  be  present.  But  because  it  is 
infinite,  or  limitless,  it  is  everywhere,  and  therefore  it 
follows  that  the  whole  of  spirit  must  be  present  at 
every  point  in  space  at  the  same  moment.  Spirit  is 
thus  omnipresent  in  its  entirety,  and  it  is  accordingly 
logically  correct  that  at  every  moment  of  time  all 
spirit  is  concentrated  at  any  point  in  space  that  we 
may  choose  to  fix  our  thought  upon.  This  is  the  fun- 
damental fact  of  all  being,  and  it  is  for  this  reason 
that  I  have  prepared  the  way  for  it  by  laying  down 
the  relation  between  spirit  and  matter  as  that  between 
idea  and  form,  on  the  one  hand  the  absolute  from 
which  the  elements  of  time  and  space  are  entirely  ab- 
sent, and  on  the  other  the  relative  which  is  entirely 
dependent  on  those  elements.  This  great  fact  is  that 
pure  spirit  continually  subsists  in  the  absolute, 
whether  in  a  corporeal  body  or  not;  and  from  it  all 
the  phenomena  of  being  flow,  whether  on  the  mental 
plane  or  the  physical.     The  knowledge  of  this  fact 


20   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

regarding  spirit  is  the  basis  of  all  conscious  spiritual 
operation,  and  therefore  in  proportion  to  our  increas- 
ing recognition  of  it  our  power  of  producing  outward 
visible  results  by  the  action  of  our  thought  will  grow. 
The  whole  is  greater  than  its  part,  and  therefore,  if, 
by  our  recognition  of  this  unity,  we  can  concentrate 
all  spirit  into  any  given  point  at  any  moment,  we 
thereby  include  any  individualization  of  it  that  we 
may  wish  to  deal  with.  The  practical  importance  of 
this  conclusion  is  too  obvious  to  need  enlarging  upon. 
Pure  spirit  is  the  Life-principle  considered  apart 
from  the  matrix  in  which  it  takes  relation  to  time  and 
space  in  a  particular  form.  In  this  aspect  it  is  pure 
intelligence  undifferentiated  into  individuality.  As 
pure  intelligence  it  is  infinite  responsiveness  and  sus- 
ceptibility. As  devoid  of  relation  to  time  and  space 
it  is  devoid  of  individual  personality.  It  is,  therefore, 
in  this  aspect  a  purely  impersonal  element  upon  which, 
by  reason  of  its  inherent  intelligence  and  suscepti- 
bility, we  can  impress  any  recognition  of  personality 
that  we  will.  These  are  the  great  facts  that  the  men- 
tal scientist  works  with,  and  the  student  will  do  well 
to  ponder  deeply  on  their  significance  and  on  the  re- 
sponsibilities which  their  realization  must  necessarily 
carry  with  it. 


IV. 

SUBJECTIVE    AND    OBJECTIVE    MIND. 

Up  to  this  point  it  has  been  necessary  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  science  by  the  statement  of  highly 
abstract  general  principles  which  we  have  reached  by 
purely  metaphysical  reasoning.  We  now  pass  on  to 
the  consideration  of  certain  natural  laws  which  have 
been  established  by  a  long  series  of  experiments  and 
observations,  the  full  meaning  and  importance  of 
which  will  become  clear  when  we  see  their  application 
to  the  general  principles  which  have  hitherto  occupied 
our  attention.  The  phenomena  of  hypnosis  are  now  so 
fully  recognized  as  established  scientific  facts  that  it  is 
quite  superfluous  to  discuss  the  question  of  their  cred- 
ibility. Two  great  medical  schools  have  been  founded 
upon  them,  and  in  some  countries  they  have  become  the 
subject  of  special  legislation.  The  question  before  us 
at  the  present  day  is,  not  as  to  the  credibility  of  the 
facts,  but  as  to  the  proper  inferences  to  be  drawn  from 
them,  and  a  correct  apprehension  of  these  inferences 
is  one  of  the  most  valuable  aids  to  the  mental  scientist, 
for  it  confirms  the  conclusions  of  purely  a  priori  rea- 
soning by  an  array  of  experimental  instances  which 
places  the  correctness  of  those  conclusions  beyond 
doubt. 

2Z 


22   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

The  great  truth  which  the  science  of  hypnotism  has 
brought  to  Hght  is  the  dual  nature  of  the  human  mind. 
Much  conflict  exists  between  different  writers  as  to 
whether  this  duaHty  results  from  the  presence  of  two 
actually  separate  minds  in  the  one  man,  or  in  the  ac- 
tion of  the  same  mind  in  the  employment  of  different 
functions.  This  is  one  of  those  distinctions  without 
a  difference  which  are  so  prolific  a  source  of  hindrance 
to  the  opening  out  of  truth.  A  man  must  be  a  single 
individuality  to  be  a  man  at  all,  and,  so,  the  net  result 
is  the  same  whether  we  conceive  of  his  varied  modes 
of  mental  action  as  proceeding  from  a  set  of  separate 
minds  strung,  so  to  speak,  on  the  thread  of  his  one 
individuality  and  each  adapted  to  a  particular  use,  or 
as  varied  functions  of  a  single  mind  :  in  either  case  we 
are  dealing  with  a  single  individuality,  and  how  we 
may  picture  the  wheel-work  of  the  mental  mechanism 
is  merely  a  question  of  what  picture  will  bring  the 
nature  of  its  action  home  to  us  most  clearly.  There- 
fore, as  a  matter  of  convenience,  I  shall  in  these  lec- 
tures speak  of  this  dual  action  as  though  it  proceeded 
from  two  minds,  an  outer  and  an  inner,  and  the  inner 
mind  we  will  call  the  subjective  mind  and  the  outer 
the  objective,  by  which  names  the  distinction  is  most 
frequently  indicated  in  the  literature  of  the  subject. 

A  long  series  of  careful  experiments  by  highly- 
trained  observers,  some  of  them  men  of  world-wide 
reputation,  has  fully  established  certain  remarkable 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  23 

differences  between  the  action  of  the  subjective  and 
that  of  the  objective  mind  which  may  be  briefly  stated 
as  follows.  The  subjective  mind  is  only  able  to  rea- 
son deductively  and  not  inductively,  while  the  objec- 
tive mind  can  do  both.  Deductive  reasoning  is  the 
pure  syllogism  which  shows  why  a  third  proposition 
must  necessarily  result  if  two  others  are  assumed,  but 
which  does  not  help  us  to  determine  whether  the  two 
initial  statements  are  true  or  not.  To  determine  this 
is  the  province  of  inductive  reasoning  which  draws 
its  conclusions  from  the  observation  of  a  series  of 
facts.  The  relation  of  the  two  modes  of  reasoning  is 
that,  first  by  observing  a  sufficient  number  of  instances, 
we  inductively  reach  the  conclusion  that  a  certain 
principle  is  of  general  application,  and  then  we  enter 
upon  the  deductive  process  by  assuming  the  truth  of 
this  principle  and  determining  what  result  must  fol- 
low in  a  particular  case  on  the  hypothesis  of  its  truth. 
Thus  deductive  reasoning  proceeds  on  the  assumption 
of  the  correctness  of  certain  hypotheses  or  supposi- 
tions with  which  it  sets  out :  it  is  not  concerned  with 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  those  suppositions,  but  only 
with  the  question  as  to  what  results  must  necessarily 
follow  supposing  them  to  be  true.  Inductive  reason- 
ing, on  the  other  hand,  is  the  process  by  which  we 
compare  a  number  of  separate  instances  with  one  an- 
other until  we  see  the  common  factor  that  gives  rise 
to  them  all.    Induction  proceeds  by  the  comparison  of 


24  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

facts,  and  deduction  by  the  application  of  universal 
principles.  Now  it  is  the  deductive  method  only 
which  is  followed  by  the  subjective  mind.  Innumer- 
able experiments  on  persons  in  the  hypnotic  state  have 
shown  that  the  subjective  mind  is  utterly  incapable  of 
making  the  selection  and  comparison  which  are  neces- 
sary to  the  inductive  process,  but  will  accept  any  sug- 
gestion, however  false,  but  having  once  accepted  any 
suggestion,  it  is  strictly  logical  in  deducing  the  proper 
conclusions  from  it^  and  works  out  every  suggestion 
to  the  minutest  fraction  of  the  results  which  flow 
from  it. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  it  follows  that  the  subjec- 
tive mind  is  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  objective 
mind.  With  the  utmost  fidelity  it  reproduces  and 
works  out  to  its  final  consequences  whatever  the  ob- 
jective mind  impresses  upon  it ;  and  the  facts  of  hyp- 
notism show  that  ideas  can  be  impressed  on  the  sub- 
jective mind  by  the  objective  mind  of  another  as  well 
as  by  that  of  its  own  individuality.  This  is  a  most 
important  point,  for  it  is  on  this  amenability  to  sugges- 
tion by  the  thought  of  another  that  all  the  phenomena 
of  healing,  whether  present  or  absent,  of  telepathy 
and  the  like,  depend.  Under  the  control  of  the  prac- 
tised hypnotist  the  very  personality  of  the  subject  be- 
comes changed  for  the  time  being ;  he  believes  himself 
to  be  whatever  the  operator  tells  him  he  is :  he  is  a 
swimmer  breasting  the  waves,  a  bird  flying  in  the  air, 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  25 

a  soldier  in  the  tumult  of  battle,  an  Indian  stealthily 
tracking-  his  victim :  in  short,  for  the  time  being,  he 
identifies  himself  with  any  personality  that  is  im- 
pressed upon  him  by  the  will  of  the  operator,  and  acts 
the  part  with  inimitable  accuracy.  But  the  experi- 
ments of  hypnotism  go  further  than  this,  and  show 
the  existence  in  the  subjective  mind  of  powers  far 
transcending  any  exercised  by  the  objective  mind 
through  the  medium  of  the  physical  senses;  powers 
of  thought-reading,  of  thought-transference,  of  clair- 
voyance, and  the  like,  all  of  which  are  frequently 
manifested  when  the  patient  is  brought  into  the 
higher  mesmeric  state;  and  we  have  thus  experi- 
mental proof  of  the  existence  in  ourselves  of  tran- 
scendental faculties  the  full  development  and  con- 
scious control  of  which  would  place  us  in  a  perfectly 
new  sphere  of  life. 

But  it  should  be  noted  that  the  control  must  be  our 
own  and  not  that  of  any  external  intelligence  whether 
in  the  flesh  or  out  of  it. 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  fact  which  hyp- 
notic experiments  have  demonstrated  is  that  the  sub- 
jective mind  is  the  builder  of  the  body.  The  subjec- 
tive entity  in  the  patient  is  able  to  diagnose  the 
character  of  the  disease  from  which  he  is  suffering 
and  to  point  out  suitable  remedies,  indicating  a  phys- 
iological knowledge  exceeding  that  of  the  most 
highly  trained  physicians,  and  also  a  knowledge  of 


26   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

the  correspondences  between  diseased  conditions  of 
the  bodily  organs  and  the  material  remedies  which 
can  afford  relief.  And  from  this  it  is  but  a  step  fur- 
ther to  those  numerous  instances  in  which  it  entirely 
dispenses  with  the  use  of  material  remedies  and  itself 
works  directly  on  the  organism,  so  that  complete  res- 
toration to  health  follows  as  the  result  of  the  sugges- 
tions of  perfect  soundness  made  by  the  operator  to  the 
patient  while  in  the  hypnotic  state. 

Now  these  are  facts  fully  established  by  hundreds 
of  experiments  conducted  by  a  variety  of  investiga- 
tors in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  from  them 
we  may  draw  two  inferences  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance :  one,  that  the  subjective  mind  is  in  itself  abso- 
lutely impersonal,  and  the  other  that  it  is  the  builder 
of  the  body,  or  in  other  words  it  is  the  creative  power 
in  the  individual.  That  it  is  impersonal  in  itself  is 
shown  by  its  readiness  to  assume  any  personality 
the  hypnotist  chooses  to  impress  upon  it;  and  the 
unavoidable  inference  is  that  its  realization  of  per- 
sonality proceeds  from  its  association  with  the  par- 
ticular objective  mind  of  its  own  individuality. 
Whatever  personality  the  objective  mind  impresses 
upon  it,  that  personality  it  assumes  and  acts  up  to; 
and  since  it  is  the  builder  of  the  body  it  will  build 
up  a  body  in  correspondence  with  the  personality 
thus  impressed  upon  it.  These  two  laws  of  the  sub- 
jective mind  form  the  foundation  of  the  axiom  that 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  27 

our  body  represents  the  aggregate  of  our  beliefs.  If 
our  fixed  belief  is  that  the  body  is  subject  to  all  sorts 
of  influences  beyond  our  control,  and  tliat  this,  that, 
or  the  other  symptom  shows  that  such  an  uncon- 
trollable influence  is  at  work  upon  us,  then  this  belief 
is  impressed  upon  the  subjective  mind,  which  by  the 
law  of  its  nature  accepts  it  without  question  and  pro- 
ceeds to  fashion  bodily  conditions  in  accordance  with 
this  belief.  Again,  if  our  fixed  belief  is  that  cer- 
tain material  remedies  are  the  only  means  of  cure, 
then  we  find  in  this  belief  the  foundation  of  all  medi- 
cine. There  is  nothing  unsound  in  the  theory  of 
medicine;  it  is  the  strictly  logical  correspondence 
w'ith  the  measure  of  knowledge  which  those  who  rely 
on  it  are  as  yet  able  to  assimilate,  and  it  acts  accu- 
rately in  accordance  with  their  belief  that  in  a  large 
number  of  cases  medicine  will  do  good,  but  also  in 
many  instances  it  fails.  Therefore,  for  those  who 
have  not  yet  reached  a  more  interior  perception  of 
the  law  of  Nature,  the  healing  agency  of  medicine  is 
a  most  valuable  aid  to  the  alleviation  of  physical 
maladies.  The  error  to  be  combated  is  not  the  belief 
that,  in  its  own  way,  medicine  is  capable  of  doing 
good,  but  the  belief  that  there  is  no  higher  or  better 
w-ay. 

Then,  on  the  same  principle,  if  we  realize  that  the 
subjective  mind  is  the  builder  of  the  body,  and  that 
the  body  is  subject  to  no  influences  except  those  which 


28  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

reach  it  through  the  subjective  mind,  then  what  we 
have  to  do  is  to  impress  this  upon  the  subjective 
mind  and  habitually  think  of  it  as  a  fountain  of  per- 
petual Life,  which  is  continually  renovating  the  body 
by  building  in  strong  and  healthy  material,  in  the  most 
complete  independence  of  any  influences  of  any  sort, 
save  those  of  our  own  desire  impressed  upon  our  own 
subjective  mind  by  our  own  thought.  When  once 
we  fully  grasp  these  considerations  we  shall  see  that 
it  is  just  as  easy  to  externalize  healthy  conditions 
of  body  as  the  contrary.  Practically  the  process 
amounts  to  a  belief  in  our  own  power  of  life;  and 
since  this  belief,  if  it  be  thoroughly  domiciled  within 
us,  will  necessarily  produce  a  correspondingly  healthy 
body,  we  should  spare  no  pains  to  convince  ourselves 
that  there  are  sound  and  reasonable  grounds  for  hold- 
ing it.  To  afford  a  solid  basis  for  this  conviction  is 
the  purpose  of  Mental  Science. 


iV. 

FURTHER  CONSIDERATIONS  REGARDING 
SUBJECTIVE    AND    OBJECTIVE   MIND. 

An  intelligent  consideration  of  the  phenomena  of 
hypnotism  will  show  us  that  what  we  call  the  hyp- 
notic state  is  the  normal  state  of  the  subjective  mind. 
It  ahvays  conceives  of  itself  in  accordance  with  some 
suggestion  conveyed  to  it,  either  consciously  or  un- 
consciously to  the  mode  of  objective  mind  which  gov- 
erns it,  and  it  gives  rise  to  corresponding  external 
results.  The  abnormal  nature  of  the  conditions  in- 
duced by  experimental  hypnotism  is  in  the  removal 
of  the  normal  control  held  by  the  individual's  own 
objective  mind  over  his  subjective  mind  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  some  other  control  for  it,  and  thus  we 
may  say  that  the  normal  characteristic  of  the  sub- 
jective mind  is  its  perpetual  action  in  accordance 
with  some  sort  of  suggestion.  It  becomes  therefore 
a  question  of  the  highest  importance  to  determine  in 
every  case  what  the  nature  of  the  suggestion  shall 
be  and  from  what  source  it  shall  proceed;  but  before 
considering  the  sources  of  suggestion  we  must  real- 
ize more  fully  the  place  taken  by  subjective  mind  in 
the  order  of  Nature. 

If  the  student  has  followed  what  has  been  said  re- 

26) 


3©   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Metital  Science. 

garding  the  presence  of  intelligent  spirit  pervading 
all  space  and  permeating  all  matter,  he  will  now  have 
little  difficulty  in  recognizing  this  all-pervading  spirit 
as  universal  subjective  mind.  That  it  cannot  as 
universal  mind  have  the  qualities  of  objective  mind 
is  very  obvious.  The  universal  mind  is  the  creative 
power  throughout  Nature;  and  as  the  originating 
power  it  must  first  give  rise  to  the  various  forms  in 
which  objective  mind  recognizes  its  own  individu- 
ality, before  these  individual  minds  can  re-act  upon 
it;  and  hence,  as  pure  spirit  or  -first  cause,  it  cannot 
possibly  be  an)rthing  else  than  subjective  mind;  and 
the  fact  which  has  been  abundantly  proved  by  ex- 
periment that  the  subjective  mind  is  the  builder  of 
the  body  shows  us  that  the  power  of  creating  by 
growth  from  within  is  the  essential  characteristic  of 
the  subjective  mind.  Hence,  both  from  experiment 
and  from  a  priori  reasoning,  we  may  say  that  where- 
ever  we  find  creative  power  at  work  there  we  are  in 
the  presence  of  subjective  mind,  whether  it  be  work- 
ing on  the  grand  scale  of  the  cosmos,  or  on  the  min- 
iature scale  of  the  individual.  We  may  therefore  lay 
it  down  as  a  principle  that  the  universal  all-perme- 
ating intelligence,  which  has  been  considered  in  the 
second  and  third  sections,  is  purely  subjective  mind, 
and  therefore  follows  the  law  of  subjective  mind, 
namely  that  it  is  amenable  to  any  suggestion,  and 
will  carry  out  any  suggestion  that  is  impressed  upon 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  31 

it  to  its  most  rigorously  logical  consequences.  The 
incalculable  importance  of  this  truth  may  not  per- 
haps strike  the  student  at  first  sight,  but  a  little  con- 
sideration will  show  him  the  enormous  possibilities 
that  are  stored  up  in  it,  and  in  the  concluding  sec- 
tion I  shall  briefly  touch  upon  the  very  serious  con- 
clusions resulting  from  it.  For  the  present  it  will 
be  sufficient  to  realize  that  the  subjective  mind  in 
ourselves  is  the  same  subjective  mind  which  is  at 
work  throughout  the  universe  giving  rise  to  the  in- 
finitude of  natural  forms  with  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded, and  in  like  manner  giving  rise  to  ourselves 
also.  It  may  be  called  the  supporter  of  our  individu- 
ality; and  we  may  loosely  speak  of  our  individual 
subjective  mind  as  our  personal  share  in  the  uni- 
versal mind.  This,  of  course,  does  not  imply  the 
splitting  up  of  the  universal  mind  into  fractions,  and 
it  is  to  avoid  this  error  that  I  have  discussed  the  es- 
sential unity  of  spirit  in  the  third  section,  but  in  order 
to  avoid  too  highly  abstract  conceptions  in  the  present 
stage  of  the  student's  progress  we  may  conveniently 
employ  the  idea  of  a  personal  share  in  the  universal 
subjective  mind. 

To  realize  our  individual  subjective  mind  in  this 
manner  will  help  us  to  get  over  the  great  meta- 
physical difficulty  which  meets  us  in  our  endeavour 
to  make  conscious  use  of  first  cause,  in  other  words 
to  create  external  results  by  the  power  of  our  own 


32   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

thought.  Ultimately  there  can  be  only  one  first 
cause  which  is  the  universal  mind,  but  because  it  is 
universal  it  cannot,  as  universal,  act  on  the  plane  of 
the  individual  and  particular.  For  it  to  do  so  would 
be  for  it  to  cease  to  be  universal  and  therefore  cease 
to  be  the  creative  power  which  we  wish  to  employ. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  we  are  working  for 
a  specific  definite  object  implies  our  intention  to  use 
this  universal  power  in  application  to  a  particular 
purpose,  and  thus  we  find  ourselves  involved  in  the 
paradox  of  seeking  to  make  the  universal  act  on  the 
plane  of  the  particular.  We  want  to  effect  a  junction 
between  the  two  extremes  of  the  scale  of  Nature, 
the  innermost  creative  spirit  and  a  particular  external 
form.  Between  these  two  is  a  great  gulf,  and  the 
question  is  how  is  it  to  be  bridged  over.  It  is  here, 
then,  that  the  conception  of  our  individual  subjective 
mind  as  our  personal  share  in  the  universal  subjective 
mind  affords  the  means  of  meeting  the  difficulty,  for 
on  the  one  hand  it  is  in  immediate  connection  with 
the  universal  mind,  and  on  the  other  it  is  immediate 
connection  with  the  individual  objective,  or  intel- 
lectual mind ;  and  this  in  its  turn  is  in  immediate  con- 
nection with  the  world  of  externalization,  which  is 
conditioned  in  time  and  space;  and  thus  the  relation 
between  the  subjective  and  objective  minds  in  the 
individual  forms  the  bridge  which  is  needed  to  con- 
nect the  two  extremities  of  the  scale. 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  ^^ 

The  individual  subjective  mind  may  therefore  be 
regarded  as  the  organ  of  the  Absolute  in  precisely 
the  same  way  that  the  objective  mind  is  the  organ 
of  the  Relative,  and  it  is  in  order  to  regulate  our  use 
of  these  two  organs  that  it  is  necessary  to  under- 
stand what  the  terms  "  absolute  "  and  "  relative  " 
actually  mean.  The  absolute  is  that  idea  of  a  thing 
which  contemplates  it  as  existing  in  itself  and  not  in 
relation  to  something  else,  that  is  to  say,  which  con- 
templates the  essence  of  it;  and  the  relative  is  that 
idea  of  a  thing  which  contemplates  it  as  related  to 
other  things,  that  is  to  say  as  circumscribed  by  a 
certain  environment.  The  absolute  is  the  region  of 
causes,  and  the  relative  is  the  region  of  conditions; 
and  hence,  if  we  wish  to  control  conditions,  this  can 
only  be  done  by  our  thought-power  operating  on  the 
plane  of  the  absolute,  which  it  can  do  only  through 
the  medium  of  the  subjective  mind.  The  conscious 
use  of  the  creative  power  of  thought  consists  in  the 
attainment  of  the  power  of  Thinking  in  the  Absolute, 
and  this  can  only  be  attained  by  a  clear  conception 
of  the  interaction  between  our  different  mental  func- 
tions. For  this  purpose  the  student  cannot  too 
strongly  impress  upon  himself  that  subjective  mind, 
on  whatever  scale,  is  intensely  sensitive  to  sugges- 
tion, and  as  creative  power  works  accurately  to  the 
externalization  of  that  suggestion  which  is  most 
deeply  impressed  upon  it.     If  then,  we  would  take 


34   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

any  idea  out  of  the  realm  of  the  relative,  where  it  is 
limited  and  restricted  by  conditions  imposed  upon  it 
through  surrounding  circumstances,  and  transfer  it 
to  the  realm  of  the  absolute  where  it  is  not  thus 
limited,  a  right  recognition  of  our  mental  constitu- 
tion will  enable  us  to  do  this  by  a  clearly  defined 
method. 

The  object  of  our  desire  is  necessarily  first  con- 
ceived by  us  as  bearing  some  relation  to  existing  cir- 
cumstances, which  may,  or  may  not,  appear  favour- 
able to  it;  and  what  we  want  to  do  is  to  eliminate 
the  element  of  contingency  and  attain  something 
which  is  certain  in  itself.  To  do  this  is  to  work 
upon  the  plane  of  the  absolute,  and  for  this  purpose 
we  must  endeavour  to  impress  upon  our  subjective 
mind  the  idea  of  that  which  we  desire  quite  apart 
from  any  conditions.  This  separation  from  the  ele- 
ments of  condition  implies  the  elimination  of  the  idea 
of  time,  and  consequently  we  must  think  of  the  thing 
as  already  in  actual  existence.  Unless  we  do  this  we 
are  not  consciously  operating  upon  the  plane  of  the 
absolute,  and  are  therefore  not  employing  the  creative 
power  of  our  thought.  The  simplest  practical  method 
of  gaining  the  habit  of  thinking  in  this  manner  is  to 
conceive  the  existence  in  the  spiritual  world  of  a 
spiritual  prototype  of  every  existing  thing,  which  be- 
comes the  root  of  the  corresponding  external  exist- 
ence.    If  we  thus  habituate  ourselves  to  look  on  the 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  35 

spiritual  prototype  as  the  essential  being-  of  the  thing, 
and  the  material  form  as  the  growth  of  this  proto- 
type into  outward  expression,  then  we  shall  see  that 
the  initial  step  to  the  production  of  any  external  fact 
must  be  the  creation  of  its  spiritual  prototype.  This 
prototype,  being  purely  spiritual,  can  only  be  formed 
by  the  operation  of  thought,  and  in  order  to  have 
substance  on  the  spiritual  plane  it  tmist  be  thought  of 
as  actually  existing  there.  This  conception  has  been 
elaborated  by  Plato  in  his  doctrine  of  archetypal  ideas, 
and  by  Swedenborg  in  his  doctrine  of  correspond- 
ences ;  and  a  still  greater  teacher  has  said  "  All 
things  whatsoever  ye  pray  and  ask  for,  believe  that 
ye  have  received  them,  and  ye  shall  receive  them." 
(■Mark  xi.  24,  R.V.)  The  difference  of  the  tenses 
in  this  passage  is  remarkable.  The  speaker  bids  us 
first  to  believe  that  our  desire  has  already  been  ful- 
filled, that  it  is  a  thing  already  accomplished,  and 
then  its  accomplishment  will  follow  as  a  thing  in  the 
future.  This  is  nothing  else  than  a  concise  direction 
for  making  use  of  the  creative  power  of  thought  by 
impressing  upon  the  universal  subjective  mind  the 
particular  thing  which  w^e  desire  as  an  already  exist- 
ing fact.  In  following  this  direction  we  are  thinking 
on  the  plane  of  the  absolute  and  eliminating  from  our 
minds  all  consideration  of  conditions,  which  imply 
limitation  and  the  possibility  of  adverse  contingen- 
cies; and  we  are  thus  planting  a  seed  which,  if  left 


36  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science^ 

undisturbed,  will  infallibly  germinate  into  external 
fruition. 

By  thus  making  intelligent  use  of  our  subjective 
mind,  we,  so  to  speak,  create  a  nucleus,  which  is  no 
sooner  created  than  it  begins  to  exercise  an  attractive 
force,  drawing  to  itself  material  of  a  like  character 
with  its  own,  and  if  this  process  is  allowed  to  go  on 
undisturbed,  it  will  continue  until  an  external  form 
corresponding  to  the  nature  of  the  nucleus  comes 
out  into  manifestation  on  the  plane  of  the  objective 
and  relative.  This  is  the  universal  method  of  Nature 
on  every  plane.  Some  of  the  most  advanced  thinkers 
in  modern  physical  science,  in  the  endeavour  to 
probe  the  great  mystery  of  the  first  origin  of  the 
world,  have  postulated  the  formation  of  what  they 
call  "  vortex  rings  "  formed  from  an  infinitely  fine 
primordial  substance.  They  tell  us  that  if  such  a 
ring  be  once  formed  on  the  minutest  scale  and  set 
rotating,  then,  since  it  would  be  moving  in  pure 
ether  and  subject  to  no  friction,  it  must  according  to 
all  known  laws  of  physics  be  indestructible  and  its 
motion  perpetual.  Let  two  such  rings  approach 
each  other,  and  by  the  law  of  attraction,  they  would 
coalesce  into  a  whole,  and  so  on  until  manifested 
matter  as  we  apprehend  it  with  our  external  senses, 
is  at  last  formed.  Of  course  no  one  has  ever  seen 
these  rings  with  the  physical  eye.  They  are  one  of 
those  abstractions  which  result  if  we  follow  out  the 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  37 

observed  law  of  physics  and  the  unavoidable  se- 
quences of  mathematics  to  their  necessary  conse- 
quences. We  cannot  account  for  the  things  that  we 
can  see  unless  we  assume  the  existence  of  other 
things  which  we  cannot;  and  the  "  vortex  theory  "  is 
one  of  these  assumptions.  This  theory  has  not  been 
put  forward  by  mental  scientists  but  by  purely  phys- 
ical scientists  as  the  ultimate  conclusion  to  which 
their  researches  have  led  them,  and  this  conclusion 
is  that  all  the  innumerable  forms  of  Nature  have  their 
origin  in  the  infinitely  minute  nucleus  of  the  vortex 
ring,  by  whatever  means  the  vortex  ring  may  have 
received  its  initial  impulse,  a  question  with  which 
physical  science,  as  such,  is  not  concerned. 

As  the  vortex  theory  accounts  for  the  formation 
of  the  inorganic  world,  so  does  biology  account  for 
the  formation  of  the  living  organism.  That  also 
has  its  origin  in  a  primary  nucleus  which,  as  soon  as 
it  is  established,  operates  as  a  centre  of  attraction 
for  the  formation  of  all  those  physical  organs  of 
which  the  perfect  individual  is  composed.  The  sci- 
ence of  embryology  shows  that  this  rule  holds  good 
without  exception  throughout  the  whole  rang^e  of  the 
animal  world,  including  man ;  and  botany  shows  the 
same  principle  at  work  throughout  the  vegetable 
world.  All  branches  of  physical  science  demonstrate 
the  fact  that  every  completed  manifestation,  of  what- 
ever kind  and  on  whatever  scale,  is  started  by  the  es- 


38   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

tablishment  of  a  nucleus,  infinitely  small  but  endowed 
with  an  unquenchable  energy  of  attraction,  causing 
it  to  steadily  increase  in  power  and  definiteness  of 
purpose,  until  the  process  of  growth  is  completed  and 
the  matured  form  stands  out  as  an  accomplished  fact. 
Now  if  this  be  the  universal  method  of  Nature,  there 
is  nothing  unnatural  in  supposing  that  it  must  begin 
its  operation  at  a  stage  further  back  than  the  forma- 
tion of  the  material  nucleus.  As  soon  as  that  is  called 
into  being  it  begins  to  operate  by  the  law  of  attrac- 
tion on  the  material  plane;  but  what  is  the  force 
which  originates  the  material  nucleus?  Let  a  recent 
work  on  physical  science  give  us  the  answer;  "  In 
its  ultimate  essence,  energy  may  be  incomprehensible 
by  us  except  as  an  exhibition  of  the  direct  operation 
of  that  which  we  call  Mind  or  Will."  The  quotation 
is  from  a  course  of  lectures  on  "  Waves  in  Water, 
Air  and  ^ther,"  delivered  in  1902,  at  the  Royal  In- 
stitution, by  J.  A.  Fleming.  Here,  then,  is  the  testi- 
mony of  physical  science  that  the  originating  energy 
is  Mind  or  Will ;  and  we  are,  therefore,  not  only  mak- 
ing a  logical  deduction  from  certain  unavoidable  in- 
tuitions of  the  human  mind,  but  are  also  following  on 
the  lines  of  the  most  advanced  physical  science,  when 
we  say  that  the  action  of  Mind  plants  that  nucleus 
which,  if  allowed  to  grow  undisturbed,  will  eventually 
attract  to  itself  all  the  conditions  necessary  for  its 
manifestation    in  outward   visible   form.      Now  the 


Subjective  and  Objective  Mind.  39 

only  action  of  Mind  is  Thought;  and  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  by  our  thoughts  we  create  correspond- 
ing external  conditions,  because  we  thereby  create 
the  nucleus  which  attracts  to  itself  its  own  corre- 
spondences in  due  order  until  the  finished  work  is 
manifested  on  the  external  plane.  This  is  according 
to  the  strictly  scientific  conception  of  the  universal 
law  of  growth;  and  we  may  therefore  briefly  sum 
up  the  whole  argument  by  saying  that  our  thought 
of  anything  forms  a  spiritual  prototype  of  it,  thus 
constituting  a  nucleus  or  centre  of  attraction  for  all 
conditions  necessary  to  its  eventual  externalization  by 
a  law  of  growth  inherent  in  the  prototype  itself. 


VI. 

THE   LAW   OF    GROWTH. 

A  CORRECT  understanding  of  the  law  of  growth  is 
of  the  highest  importance  to  the  student  of  Mental 
Science.  The  great  fact  to  be  realized  regarding 
Nature  is  that  it  is  natural.  We  may  pervert  the 
order  of  Nature,  but  it  will  prevail  in  the  long  run, 
returning,  as  Horace  says,  by  the  back  door  even 
though  we  drive  it  out  with  a  pitchfork;  and  the 
beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  the  law  of 
Nature  is  the  principle  of  growth  from  a  vitality  in- 
herent in  the  entity  itself.  If  we  realize  this  from  the 
outset  we  shallnot  undo  our  own  work  by  endeavour- 
ing to  force  things  to  become  that  which  by  their 
own  nature  they  are  not.  For  this  reason  when  the 
Bible  says  that  "  he  who  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste,"  it  is  enunciating  a  great  natural  principle 
that  success  depends  on  our  using,  and  not  opposing, 
the  universal  law  of  growth.  No  doubt  the  greater 
the  vitality  we  put  into  the  germ,  which  we  have 
agreed  to  call  the  spiritual  prototype,  the  quicker 
it  will  germinate;  but  this  is  simply  because  by  a 
more  realizing  conception  we  put  more  growing- 
power  into  the  seed  than  we  do  by  a  feebler  concep- 

40 


The  Law  of  Growth.  41 

tion.  Our  mistakes  always  eventually  resolve  them- 
selves into  distrusting  the  law  of  growth.  Either 
we  fancy  we  can  hasten  it  by  some  exertion  of  our 
own  from  without,  and  are  thus  led  into  hurry  and 
anxiety,  not  to  say  sometimes  into  the  employment 
of  grievously  wrong  methods ;  or  else  we  give  up  all 
hope  and  so  deny  the  germinating  power  of  the  seed 
we  have  planted.  The  result  in  either  case  is  the 
same,  for  in  either  case  we  are  in  effect  forming  a 
fresh  spiritual  prototype  of  an  opposite  character  to 
our  desire,  which  therefore  neutralizes  the  one  first 
formed,  and  disintegrates  it  and  usurps  its  place. 
The  law  is  always  the  same,  that  our  Thought  forms 
a  spiritual  prototype  which,  if  left  undisturbed,  will 
reproduce  itself  in  external  circumstances;  the  only 
difference  is  in  the  sort  of  prototype  we  form,  and 
thus  evil  is  brought  to  us  by  precisely  the  same  law 
as  good. 

These  considerations  will  greatly  simplify  our  ideas 
of  life.  We  have  no  longer  to  consider  two  forces, 
but  only  one,  as  being  the  cause  of  all  things;  the 
difference  between  good  and  evil  resulting  simply 
from  the  direction  in  which  this  force  is  made  to 
flow.  It  is  a  universal  law  that  if  we  reverse  the 
action  of  a  cause  we  at  the  same  time  reverse  the 
effect.  With  the  same  apparatus  we  can  commence 
by  mechanical  motion  which  will  generate  electricity, 
or  we  can  commence  with  electricity  which  will  gen- 


42   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

erate  mechanical  motion;  or  to  take  a  simple  arith- 
metical instance:  if  10-^2  =  5,  then  10-4-5  =  2; 
and  therefore  if  we  once  recognize  the  power  of 
thought  to  produce  any  results  at  all,  we  shall  see 
that  the  law  by  which  negative  thought  produces 
negative  results  is  the  same  by  which  positive  thought 
produces  positive  results.  Therefore  all  our  distrust 
of  the  law  of  growth,  whether  shown  in  the  anxious 
endeavour  to  bring  pressure  to  bear  from  without,  or 
in  allowing  despair  to  take  the  place  of  cheerful  ex- 
pectation, is  reversing  the  action  of  the  original 
cause  and  consequently  reversing  the  nature  of  the 
results.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  Bible,  which 
is  the  most  deeply  occult  of  all  books,  continually 
lays  so  much  stress  upon  the  efficiency  of  faith  and 
the  destructive  influence  of  unbelief;  and  in  like  man- 
ner, all  books  on  every  branch  of  spiritual  science  em- 
phatically warn  us  against  the  admission  of  doubt  or 
fear.  They  are  the  inversion  of  the  principle  which 
builds  up,  and  they  are  therefore  the  principle  which 
pulls  down ;  but  the  Law  itself  never  changes,  and  it 
is  on  the  unchangeableness  of  the  law  that  all  Mental 
Science  is  founded.  We  are  accustomed  to  realize 
the  unchangeableness  of  natural  law  in  our  every  day 
life,  and  it  should  therefore  not  be  difficult  to  realize 
that  the  same  unchangeableness  of  law  which  obtains 
on  the  visible  side  of  nature  obtains  on  the  invisible 
side  as  well.    The  variable  factor  is,  not  the  law,  but 


The  Lazv  of  Growth.  43 

our  own  volition ;  and  it  is  by  combining  this  variable 
factor  with  the  invariable  one  that  we  can  produce  the 
various  results  we  desire.  The  principle  of  growth 
is  that  of  inherent  vitality  in  the  seed  itself,  and  the 
operations  of  the  gardener  have  their  exact  analogue 
in  Mental  Science.  We  do  not  put  the  self-expansive 
vitality  into  the  seed,  but  w^e  must  sow  it,  and  we 
may  also,  so  to  speak,  water  it  by  quiet  concentrated 
contemplation  of  our  desire  as  an  actually  accom- 
plished fact.  But  we  must  carefully  remove  from 
such  contemplation  any  idea  of  a  strenuous  effort  on 
our  part  to  make  the  seed  grow.  Its  efficacy  is  in 
helping  to  keep  out  those  negative  thoughts  of  doubt 
which  would  plant  tares  among  our  wheat,  and  there- 
fore, instead  of  anything  of  effort,  such  contempla- 
tion should  be  accompanied  by  a  feeling  of  pleasure 
and  restfulness  in  foreseeing  the  certain  accomplish- 
ment of  our  desires.  This  is  that  making  our  re- 
quests known  to  God  unth  thanksgiving  which  St. 
Paul  recommends,  and  it  has  its  reason  in  that  perfect 
wholeness  of  the  Law  of  Being  which  only  needs  our 
recognition  of  it  to  be  used  by  us  to  any  extent  we 
wish. 

Some  people  possess  the  power  of  visualization,  or 
making  mental  pictures  of  things,  in  a  greater  degree 
than  others,  and  by  such  this  faculty  may  advanta- 
geously be  employed  to  facilitate  their  realization  of 
the  working  of  the  Law.    But  those  who  do  not  pos- 


44   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

sess  this  faculty  in  any  marked  degree,  need  not  be 
discouraged  by  their  want  of  it,  for  visualization  is 
not  the  only  way  of  realizing  that  the  law  is  at  work 
on  the  invisible  plane.  Those  whose  mental  bias 
is  towards  physical  science  should  realize  this  Law 
of  Growth  as  the  creative  force  throughout  all  nature ; 
and  those  who  have  a  mathematical  turn  of  mind 
may  reflect  that  all  solids  are  generated  from  the 
movement  of  a  point,  which,  as  our  old  friend  Euclid 
tells  us,  is  that  which  has  no  parts  nor  magnitude, 
and  is  therefore  as  complete  an  abstraction  as  any 
spiritual  nucleus  could  be.  To  use  the  apostolic 
words,  we  are  dealing  with  the  substance  of  things 
not  seen,  and  we  have  to  attain  that  habit  of  mind 
by  which  we  shall  see  its  reality  and  feel  that  we 
are  mentally  manipulating  the  only  substance  there 
ultimately  is,  and  of  which  all  visible  things  are  only 
different  modes.  We  must  therefore  regard  our  men- 
tal creations  as  spiritual  realities  and  then  implicitly 
trust  the  Law  of  Growth  to  do  the  rest. 


VII. 

RECEPTIVITY. 

In  order  to  lay  the  foundations  for  practical  work, 
the  student  must  endeavour  to  get  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  what  is  meant  by  the  intelligence  of  undiffer- 
entiated spirit.  We  want  to  grasp  the  idea  of  in- 
telligence apart  from  individuality,  an  idea  which  is 
rather  apt  to  elude  us  until  we  grow  accustomed  to 
it.  It  is  the  failure  to  realize  this  quality  of  spirit 
that  has  given  rise  to  all  the  theological  errors  that 
have  brought  bitterness  into  the  world  and  has  been 
prominent  amongst  the  causes  which  have  retarded 
the  true  development  of  mankind.  To  accurately 
convey  this  conception  in  words,  is  perhaps,  im- 
possible, and  to  attempt  definition  is  to  introduce 
that  very  idea  of  limitation  which  is  our  object  to 
avoid.  It  is  a  matter  of  feeling  rather  than  of  defini- 
tion; yet  some  endeavour  must  be  made  to  indicate 
the  direction  in  which  we  must  feel  for  this  great 
truth  if  we  are  to  find  it.  The  idea  is  that  of  realiz- 
ing personality  without  that  selfhood  which  differen- 
tiates one  individual  from  another.  "  I  am  not  that 
other  because  I  am  myself  " — this  is  the  definition 
of  individual  selfhood;  but  it  necessarily  imparts  the 

45 


46   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

idea  of  limitation,  because  the  recognition  of  any  other 
individuahty  at  once  affirms  a  point  at  which  our  own 
individuahty  ceases  and  the  other  begins.  Now  this 
mode  of  recognition  cannot  be  attributed  to  the  Uni- 
versal Mind.  For  it  to  recognize  a  point  where  itself 
ceased  and  something  else  began  would  be  to  recog- 
nize itself  as  not  universal;  for  the  meaning  of  uni- 
versality is  the  including  of  all  things,  and  therefore 
for  this  intelligence  to  recognize  anything  as  being 
outside  itself  would  be  a  denial  of  its  own  being.  We 
may  therefore  say  without  hesitation  that,  whatever 
may  be  the  nature  of  its  intelligence,  it  must  be  en- 
tirely devoid  of  the  element  of  self-recognition  as  an 
individual  personality  on  any  scale  whatever.  Seen  in 
this  light  it  is  at  once  clear  that  the  originating  all- 
pervading  Spirit  is  the  grand  impersonal  principle  of 
Life  which  gives  rise  to  all  the  particular  manifesta- 
tions of  Nature.  Its  absolute  impersonalness,  in  the 
sense  of  the  entire  absence  of  any  consciousness  of 
individual  selfhood,  is  a  point  on  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  insist  too  strongly.  The  attributing  of 
an  impossible  individuality  to  the  Universal  Mind  is 
one  of  the  two  grand  errors  w^iich  we  find  sapping 
the  foundations  of  religion  and  philosophy  in  all 
ages.  The  other  consists  in  rushing  to  the  opposite 
extreme  and  denying  the  quality  of  personal  intelli- 
gence to  the  Universal  Mind.  The  answer  to  this 
?rror  remains,  as  of  old,  in  the  simple  question, 


Receptivity.  47 

"  He  that  made  the  eye  shall  He  not  see?  He  that 
planted  the  ear  shall  He  not  hear?" — or  to  use  a 
popular  proverb,  "  You  cannot  get  out  of  a  bag  more 
than  there  is  in  it;"  and  consequently  the  fact  that 
we  ourselves  are  centres  of  personal  intelligence  is 
proof  that  the  infinite,  from  which  these  centres  are 
concentrated,  must  be  infinite  intelligence,  and  thus 
we  cannot  avoid  attributing  to  it  the  two  factors 
which  constitute  personality,  namely,  intelligence 
and  volition.  We  are  therefore  brought  to  the  con- 
clusion that  this  universally  diffused  essence,  which 
we  might  think  of  as  a  sort  of  spiritual  protoplasm, 
must  possess  all  the  qualities  of  personality  without 
that  conscious  recognition  of  self  which  constitutes 
separate  individuality :  and  since  the  word  "  person- 
ality "  has  became  so  associated  in  our  ordinary  talk 
with  the  idea  of  "  individuality  "  it  will  perhaps  be 
better  to  coin  a  new  word,  and  speak  of  the  personal- 
ness  of  the  Universal  Mind  as  indicating  its  personal 
quality,  apart  from  individuality.  We  must  realize 
that  this  universal  spirit  permeates  all  space  and  all 
manifested  substance,  just  as  physical  scientists  tell 
us  that  the  ether  does,  and  that  wherever  it  is,  there 
it  must  carry  with  it  all  that  it  is  in  its  own  being; 
and  we  shall  then  see  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  an 
ocean  of  undifferentiated  yet  intelligent  Life,  above, 
below,  and  all  around,  and  permeating  ourselves  both 
mentally  and  corporeally,  and  all  other  beings  as  well. 


48   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

Gradually  as  we  come  to  realize  the  truth  of  this 
statement,  our  eyes  will  begin  to  open  to  its  im- 
mense significance.  It  means  that  all  Nature  is  per- 
vaded by  an  interior  personalness,  infinite  in  its  poten- 
tialities of  intelligence,  responsiveness,  and  power  of 
expression,  and  only  waiting  to  be  called  into  activity 
by  our  recognition  of  it.  By  the  terms  of  its  nature 
it  can  respond  to  us  only  as  we  recognize  it.  If  we 
are  at  that  intellectual  level  where  we  can  see  nothing 
but  chance  governing  the  world,  then  this  underlying 
universal  mind  will  present  to  us  nothing  but  a  for- 
tuitous confluence  of  forces  without  any  intelligible 
order.  If  we  are  sufficiently  advanced  to  see  that 
such  a  confluence  could  only  produce  a  chaos,  and  not 
a  cosmos,  then  our  conceptions  expand  to  the  idea  of 
universal  Law,  and  we  find  this  to  be  the  nature  of  the 
all-underlying  principle.  We  have  made  an  immense 
advance  from  the  realm  of  mere  accident  into  a  world 
where  there  are  definite  principles  on  which  we  can 
calculate  with  certainty  zvhen  ive  know  them.  But 
here  is  the  crucial  point.  The  laws  of  the  universe 
are  there,  but  we  are  ignorant  of  them,  and  only 
through  experience  gained  by  repeated  failures  can 
we  get  any  insight  into  the  laws  with  which  we  have 
to  deal.  How  painful  each  step  and  how  slow  the 
progress!  ^ons  upon  seons  would  not  suffice  to 
grasp  all  the  laws  of  the  universe  in  their  totality, 
not  in  the  visible  world  only,  but  also  in  the  world 


Receptivity.  49 

of  the  unseen;  each  failure  to  know  the  true  law 
implies  suffering  arising  from  our  ignorant  breach  of 
it ;  and  thus,  since  Nature  is  infinite,  we  are  met  by 
the  paradox  that  we  must  in  some  way  contrive  to 
compass  the  knowledge  of  the  infinite  with  our  indi- 
vidual intelligence,  and  we  must  perform  a  pilgrim- 
age along  an  unceasing  Via  Dolorosa  beneath  the 
lash  of  the  inexorable  Law  until  we  find  the  solution 
to  the  problem.  But  it  will  be  asked,  May  we  not 
go  on  until  at  last  we  attain  the  possession  of  all 
knowledge?  People  do  not  realize  what  is  meant 
by  "  the  infinite,"  or  they  would  not  ask  such  ques- 
tions. The  infinite  is  that  which  is  limitless  and  ex- 
haustless.  Imagine  the  vastest  capacity  you  will, 
and  having  filled  it  with  the  infinite,  what  remains 
of  the  infinite  is  just  as  infinite  as  before.  To  the 
mathematician  this  may  be  put  very  clearly.  Raise  x 
to  any  power  you  will,  and  however  vast  may  be  the 
disparity  between  it  and  the  lower  powers  of  x,  both 
are  equally  incommensurate  with  x**.  The  universal 
reign  of  Law  is  a  magnificent  truth ;  it  is  one  of  the 
two  great  pillars  of  the  universe  symbolized  by  the 
two  pillars  that  stood  at  the  entrance  to  Solomon's 
temple :  it  is  Jachin,  but  Jachin  must  be  equilibriated 
by  Boaz. 

It  is  an  enduring  truth,  which  can  never  be  al- 
tered, that  every  infraction  of  the  Law  of  Nature 
must  carry  its  punitive  consequences  with  it.     We 


50   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

can  never  get  beyond  the  range  of  cause  and  effect. 
There  is  no  escaping  from  the  law  of  punishment, 
except  by  knowledge.  If  we  know  a  law  of  Nature 
and  work  with  it,  we  shall  find  it  our  unfailing 
friend,  ever  ready  to  serve  us,  and  never  rebuking 
us  for  past  failures;  but  if  we  ignorantly  or  wilfully 
transgress  it,  it  is  our  implacable  enemy,  until  we 
again  become  obedient  to  it;  and  therefore  the  only 
redemption  from  perpetual  pain  and  servitude  is  by 
a  self-expansion  which  can  grasp  infinitude  itself. 
How  is  this  to  be  accomplished?  By  our  progress 
to  that  kind  and  degree  of  intelligence  by  which  we 
realize  the  inherent  personalncss  of  the  divine  all- 
pervading  Life,  which  is  at  once  the  Law  and  the 
Substance  of  all  that  is.  Well  said  the  Jewish  rabbis 
of  old,  "  The  Law  is  a  Person."  When  we  once 
realize  that  the  universal  Life  and  the  universal  Law 
are  one  with  the  universal  Personalncss,  then  we 
have  established  the  pillar  Boaz  as  the  needed  com- 
plement to  Jachin;  and  when  we  find  the  common 
point  in  which  these  two  unite,  we  have  raised  the 
Royal  Arch  through  which  we  may  triumphantly 
enter  the  Temple.  We  must  dissociate  the  Univer- 
sal Personalness  from  every  conception  of  individ- 
uality. The  universal  can  never  be  the  individual : 
that  would  be  a  contradiction  in  terms.  But  be- 
cause the  universal  personalness  is  the  root  of  all 
individual  personalities,  it  finds  its  highest  expression 


Receptivity.  51 

in  response  to  those  who  reahze  its  personal  nature. 
And  it  is  this  recognition  that  solves  the  seemingly 
insoluble  paradox.  The  only  way  to  attain  that 
knowledge  of  the  Infinite  Law  which  will  change  the 
Via  Dolorosa  into  the  Path  of  Joy  is  to  embody  in 
ourselves  a  principle  of  knowledge  commensurate 
with  the  infinitude  of  that  which  is  to  be  known; 
and  this  is  accomplished  by  realizing  that,  infinite 
as  the  law  itself,  is  a  universal  Intelligence  in  the 
midst  of  which  we  float  as  in  a  living  ocean.  Intelli- 
gence without  individual  personality,  but  which,  in 
producing  us,  concentrates  itself  into  the  personal 
individualities  which  we  are.  What  should  be  the 
relation  of  such  an  intelligence  towards  us  ?  Not  one 
of  favouritism :  not  any  more  than  the  Law  can  it 
respect  one  person  above  another,  for  itself  is  the 
root  and  support  for  each  alike.  Not  one  of  refusal 
to  our  advances ;  for  without  individuality  it  can  have 
no  personal  object  of  its  own  to  conflict  with  ours; 
and  since  it  is  itself  the  origin  of  all  individual  intel- 
ligence, it  cannot  be  shut  off  by  inability  to  under- 
stand. By  the  very  terms  of  its  being,  therefore,  this 
infinite,  underlying,  all-producing  Mind  must  be 
ready  immediately  to  respond  to  all  who  realize  their 
true  relation  to  it.  As  the  very  principle  of  Life  itself 
it  must  be  infinitely  susceptible  to  feeling,  and  conse- 
quently it  will  reproduce  with  absolute  accuracy  what- 
ever conception  of  itself  we  impress  upon  it;  and 


52   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

hence  if  we  realize  the  human  mind  as  that  stage  in 
the  evolution  of  the  cosmic  order  at  which  an  indi- 
viduality has  arisen  capable  of  expressing,  not  merely 
the  livingness,  but  also  the  personalness  of  the  univer- 
sal underlying  spirit,  then  we  see  that  its  most  perfect 
mode  of  self-expression  must  be  by  identifying  itself 
with  these  individual  personalities. 

The  identification  is,  of  course,  limited  by  the 
measure  of  the  individual  intelligence,  meaning,  not 
merely  the  intellectual  perception  of  the  sequence  of 
cause  and  effect,  but  also  that  indescribable  reci- 
procity of  feeling  by  which  we  instinctively  recognize 
something  in  another  making  them  akin  to  ourselves ; 
and  so  it  is  that  when  we  intelligently  realize  that 
the  innermost  principle  of  being,  must  by  reason  of 
its  universality,  have  a  common  nature  with  our  own, 
then  we  have  solved  the  paradox  of  universal  knowl- 
edge, for  we  have  realized  our  identity  of  being  with 
the  Universal  Mind,  which  is  commensurate  with  the 
Universal  Law.  Thus  we  arrive  at  the  truth  of  St. 
John's  statement,  "  Ye  know  all  things,"  only  this 
knowledge  is  primarily  on  the  spiritual  plane.  It  is 
not  brought  out  into  intellectual  statement  whether 
needed  or  not ;  for  it  is  not  in  itself  the  specific  knowl- 
edge of  particular  facts,  but  it  is  the  undifferentiated 
principle  of  knowledge  which  we  may  differentiate  in 
any  direction  that  we  choose.  This  is  a  philosophical 
necessity  of  the  case,  for  though  the  action  of  the  in- 


Receptivity.  53 

dividual  mind  consists  in  differentiating  the  universal 
into  particular  applications,  to  differentiate  the  ivhole 
universal  would  be  a  contradiction  in  terms;  and  so, 
because  we  cannot  exhaust  the  infinite,  our  possession 
of  it  must  consist  in  our  power  to  differentiate  it  as 
the  occasion  may  require,  the  only  limit  being  that 
which  we  ourselves  assign  to  the  manifestation. 

In  this  way,  then,  the  recognition  of  the  community 
of  personality  between  ourselves  and  the  universal  un- 
differentiated Spirit,  which  is  the  root  and  substance 
of  all  things,  solves  the  question  of  our  release  from 
the  iron  grasp  of  an  inflexible  Law,  not  by  abrogating 
the  Law,  which  would  mean  the  annihilation  of  all 
things,  but  by  producing  in  us  an  intelligence  equal 
in  affinity  with  the  universal  Law  itself,  and  thus  en- 
abling us  to  apprehend  and  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  Law  in  each  particular  as  it  arises.  In  this  way 
the  Cosmic  Intelligence  becomes  individualized,  and 
the  individual  intelligence  becomes  universalized ;  the 
two  became  one,  and  in  proportion  as  this  unity  is 
realized  and  acted  on,  it  will  be  found  that  the  Law, 
which  gives  rise  to  all  outward  conditions,  whether  of 
body  or  of  circumstances,  becomes  more  and  more 
clearly  understood,  and  can  therefore  be  more  freely 
made  use  of,  so  that  by  steady,  intelligent  endeavour 
to  unfold  upon  these  lines  we  may  reach  degrees  of 
power  to  which  it  is  impossible  to  assign  any  limits. 
The  student  who  would  understand  the  rationale  of 


54   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science, 

the  unfoldment  of  his  own  possibiHties  must  make  no 
mistake  here.  He  must  reahze  that  the  whole  proc- 
ess is  that  of  bringing  the  universal  within  the 
grasp  of  the  individual  by  raising  the  individual  to 
the  level  of  the  universal  and  not  vice-versa.  It  is 
a  mathematical  truism  that  you  cannot  contract  the 
infinite,  and  that  you  can  expand  the  individual ;  and 
it  is  precisely  on  these  lines  that  evolution  works. 
The  laws  of  nature  cannot  be  altered  in  the  least  de- 
gree ;  but  we  can  come  into  such  a  realization  of  our 
own  relation  to  the  universal  principle  of  Law  that 
underlies  them  as  to  be  able  to  press  all  particular 
laws,  whether  of  the  visible  or  invisible  side  of  Na- 
ture, into  our  service  and  so  find  ourselves  masters 
of  the  situation.  This  is  to  be  accomplished  by 
knowledge ;  and  the  only  knowledge  which  will  effect 
this  purpose  in  all  its  measureless  immensity  is  the 
knowledge  of  the  personal  element  in  Universal  Spirit 
in  its  reciprocity  to  our  own  personality.  Our  recog- 
nition of  this  Spirit  must  therefore  be  twofold,  as  the 
principle  of  necessary  sequence,  order  or  Law,  and 
also  as  the  principle  of  Intelligence,  responsive  to  our 
own  recognition  of  it. 


VIII. 

RECIPROCAL  ACTION  OF  THE  UNIVERSAL 
AND    INDIVIDUAL    MINDS. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  foregoing  considera- 
tions bring  us  to  the  borders  of  theological  specula- 
tion, but  the  student  must  bear  in  mind  that  as  a 
Mental  Scientist  it  is  his  business  to  regard  even  the 
most  exalted  spiritual  phenomena  from  a  purely  sci- 
entific standpoint,  which  is  that  of  the  working  of 
a  universal  natural  Law.  If  he  thus  simply  deals 
with  the  facts  as  he  finds  them,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  true  meaning  of  many  theological  statements 
will  become  clear  to  him :  but  he  will  do  well  to  lay  it 
down  as  a  general  rule  that  it  is  not  necessary  either 
to  the  use  or  understanding  of  any  law,  whether  on 
the  personal  or  the  impersonal  side  of  Nature,  that 
we  should  give  a  theological  explanation  of  it :  al- 
though, therefore,  the  personal  quality  inherent  in 
the  universal  underlying  spirit,  which  is  present  in 
all  things,  cannot  be  too  strongly  insisted  upon,  we 
must  remember  that  in  dealing  with  it  v/e  are  still 
dealing  with  a  purely  natural  power  which  reappears 
at  every  point  with  protean  variety  of  form,  whether 
as  person,  animal,  or  thing.  In  each  case  what  it  be- 
5  ss 


56  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Metital  Science. 

comes  to  any  individual  is  exactly  measured  by  that 
individual's  recognition  of  it.  To  each  and  all  it  bears 
the  relation  of  supporter  of  the  race,  and  where  the  in- 
dividual development  is  incapable  of  realizing  any- 
thing more,  this  is  the  limit  of  the  relation ;  but  as  the 
individual's  power  of  recognition  expands,  he  finds  a 
reciprocal  expansion  on  the  part  of  this  intelligent 
power  which  gradually  develops  into  the  conscious- 
ness of  intimate  companionship  between  the  individ- 
ualized mind  and  the  unindividualized  source  of  it. 

Now  this  is  exactly  the  relation  which,  on  ordi- 
nary scientific  principles,  we  should  expect  to  find 
between  the  individual  and  the  cosmic  mind,  on  the 
supposition  that  the  cosmic  mind  is  subjective  mind, 
and  for  reasons  already  given  we  can  regard  it  in  no 
other  light.  As  subjective  mind  it  must  reproduce 
exactly  the  conception  of  itself  which  the  objective 
mind  of  the  individual,  acting  through  his  own  sub- 
jective mind,  impresses  upon  it ;  and  at  the  same  time, 
as  creative  mind,  it  builds  up  external  facts  in  corre- 
spondence with  this  conception.  "  Quot  homines  tot 
sententise  "  :  each  one  externalizes  in  his  outward  cir- 
cumstances precisely  his  idea  of  the  Universal  Mind; 
and  the  man  who  realizes  that  by  the  natural  law 
of  mind  he  can  bring  the  Universal  Mind  into  per- 
fectly reciprocal  action  with  its  own,  will  on  the  one 
hand  make  it  a  source  of  infinite  instruction,  and  on 
the  other  a  source  of  infinite  power.     He  will  thus 


Universal  and  Individual  Minds.  57 

wisely  alternate  the  personal  and  impersonal  aspects 
respectively  between  his  individual  mind  and  the  Uni- 
versal Mind;  when  he  is  seeking  for  guidance  or 
strength  he  will  regard  his  own  mind  as  the  imper- 
sonal element  which  is  to  receive  personality  from  the 
superior  wisdom  and  force  of  the  Greater  Mind ;  and 
when,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  to  give  out  the  stores 
thus  accumulated,  he  must  reverse  the  position  and 
consider  his  own  mind  as  the  personal  element,  and 
the  Universal  Mind  as  the  impersonal,  which  he  can 
therefore  direct  with  certainty  by  impressing  his  own 
personal  desire  upon  it.  We  need  not  be  staggered 
at  the  greatness  of  this  conclusion,  for  it  follows 
necessarily  from  the  natural  relation  betw-een  the  sub- 
jective and  the  objective  minds ;  and  the  only  question 
is  whether  we  will  limit  our  view  to  the  lower  level 
of  the  latter,  or  expand  it  so  as  to  take  in  the  limitless 
possibilities  which  the  subjective  mind  presents  to  us. 
I  have  dealt  with  this  question  at  some  length 
because  it  affords  the  key  to  two  very  important 
subjects,  the  Law  of  Supply  and  the  nature  of  In- 
tuition. Students  often  find  it  easier  to  understand 
how  the  mind  can  influence  the  body  wath  which  it 
is  so  intimately  associated,  than  how  it  can  influence 
circumstances.  If  the  operation  of  thought-power 
were  confined  exclusively  to  the  individual  mind 
this  difficulty  might  arise;  but  if  there  is  one  lesson 
the  student  of  Mental  Science  should  take  to  heart 


58   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

more  than  another,  it  is  that  the  action  of  thought- 
power  is  not  Hmited  to  a  circumscribed  individuaHty. 
What  the  individual  does  is  to  give  direction  to  some- 
thing which  is  unhmited,  to  call  into  action  a  force 
infinitely  greater  than  his  own,  which  because  it  is 
in  itself  impersonal  though  intelligent,  will  receive 
the  impress  of  his  personality,  and  can  therefore 
make  its  influence  felt  far  beyond  the  limits  which 
bound  the  individual's  objective  perception  of  the 
circumstances  with  which  he  has  to  deal.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  I  lay  so  much  stress  on  the  com- 
bination of  two  apparent  opposites  in  the  Universal 
Mind,  the  union  of  intelligence  with  impersonality. 
The  intelligence  not  only  enables  it  to  receive  the 
impress  of  our  thought,  but  also  causes  it  to  devise 
exactly  the  right  means  for  bringing  it  into  accom- 
plishment. This  is  only  the  logical  result  of  the 
hypothesis  that  we  are  dealing  with  infinite  Intelli- 
gence which  is  also  infinite  Life,  Life  means  Power, 
and  infinite  life  therefore  means  limitless  power; 
and  limitless  power  moved  by  limitless  intelligence 
cannot  be  conceived  of  as  ever  stopping  short  of  the 
accomplishment  of  its  object;  therefore,  given  the 
intention  on  the  part  of  the  Universal  Mind,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  as  to  its  ultimate  accomplishment. 
Then  comes  the  question  of  intention.  How  do  we 
know  what  the  intention  of  the  Universal  Mind  may 
be?     Here  comes  in  the  element  of  impersonality. 


Universal  and  Individual  Minds.  59 

It  has  no  intention,  because  it  is  impersonal.  As  I 
have  already  said,  the  Universal  mind  works  by  a 
law  of  averages  for  the  advancement  of  the  race,  and 
is  in  no  way  concerned  with  the  particular  wishes 
of  the  individual.  If  his  wishes  are  in  line  with  the 
forward  movement  of  the  everlasting  principle,  there 
is  nowhere  in  Nature  any  power  to  restrict  him  in 
their  fulfilment.  If  they  are  opposed  to  the  general 
forward  movement,  then  they  will  bring  him  into 
collision  with  it,  and  it  will  crush  him.  From  the 
relation  between  them  it  results  that  the  same  prin- 
ciple which  shows  itself  in  the  individual  mind  as 
Will,  becomes  in  the  universal  mind  a  Law  of 
Tendency;  and  the  direction  of  this  tendency  must 
always  be  to  life-givingness,  because  the  universal 
mind  is  the  undifferentiated  Life-spirit  of  the  uni- 
verse. Therefore  in  every  case  the  test  is  whether 
our  particular  intention  is  in  this  same  lifeward 
direction;  and  if  it  is,  then  we  may  be  absolutely 
certain  that  there  is  no  intention  on  the  part  of  the 
Universal  Mind  to  thwart  the  intention  of  our  own 
individual  mind;  we  are  dealing  with  a  purely  imper- 
sonal force,  and  it  will  no  more  oppose  us  by  specific 
plans  of  its  own  than  will  steam  or  electricity.  Com- 
bining then,  these  two  aspects  of  the  Universal  Mind, 
its  utter  impersonality  and  its  perfect  intelligence,  we 
find  precisely  the  sort  of  natural  force  we  are  in  want 
of,  something  which  will  undertake  whatever  we  put 


6o   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

into  its  hands  without  asking  questions  or  bargaining 
for  terms,  and  which,  having  undertaken  our  busi- 
ness, will  bring  to  bear  on  it  an  intelligence  to  which 
the  united  knowledge  of  the  whole  human  race  is  as 
nothing,  and  a  power  equal  to  this  intelligence.  I 
may  be  using  a  rough  and  ready  mode  of  expression, 
but  my  object  is  to  bring  home  to  the  student  the 
nature  of  the  power  he  can  employ  and  the  method 
of  employing  it,  and  I  may  therefore  state  the  whole 
position  thus : — Your  object  is  not  to  run  the  whole 
cosmos,  but  to  draw  particular  benefits,  physical,  men- 
tal, moral,  or  financial  into  your  own  or  someone 
else's  life.  From  this  individual  point  of  view  the  uni- 
versal creative  power  has  no  mind  of  its  own,  and 
therefore  you  can  make  up  its  mind  for  it.  When 
its  mind  is  thus  made  up  for  it,  it  never  abrogates 
its  place  as  the  creative  power,  but  at  once  sets  to 
work  to  carry  out  the  purpose  for  which  it  has  thus 
been  concentrated;  and  unless  this  concentration  is 
dissipated  by  the  same  agency  (yourself)  which  first 
produced  it,  it  will  work  on  by  the  law  of  growth  to 
complete  manifestation  on  the  outward  plane. 

In  dealing  with  this  great  impersonal  intelligence, 
we  are  dealing  with  the  infinite,  and  we  must  fully 
realize  infinitude  as  that  which  touches  all  points, 
and  if  it  does,  there  should  be  no  difficulty  in  under- 
standing that  this  intelligence  can  draw  together  the 
means  requisite  for  its  purpose  even  from  the  ends 


Universal  and  Individual  Minds.  6i 

of  the  world;  and  therefore,  realizing  the  Law  ac- 
cording to  which  the  result  can  be  produced,  we 
must  resolutely  put  aside  all  questioning  as  to  the 
specific  means  which  will  be  employed  in  any  case. 
To  question  this  is  to  sow  that  very  seed  of  doubt 
which  it  is  our  first  object  to  eradicate,  and  our 
intellectual  endeavour  should  therefore  be  directed, 
not  to  the  attempt  to  foretell  the  various  secondary 
causes  which  will  eventually  combine  to  produce  the 
desired  result,  laying  down  beforehand  what  par- 
ticular causes  should  be  necessary,  and  from  what 
quarter  they  should  come;  but  we  should  direct  our 
intellectual  endeavour  to  seeing  more  clearly  the 
rationale  of  the  general  law  by  which  trains  of  sec- 
ondary causes  are  set  in  motion.  Employed  in  the 
former  way  our  intellect  becomes  the  greatest  hin- 
drance to  our  success,  for  it  only  helps  to  increase  our 
doubts,  since  it  is  trying  to  grasp  particulars  which 
at  the  time  are  entirely  outside  its  circle  of  vision; 
but  employed  in  the  latter  it  affords  the  most  ma- 
terial aid  in  maintaining  that  nucleus  without  which 
there  is  no  centre  from  which  the  principle  of  growth 
can  assert  itself.  The  intellect  can  only  deduce  con- 
sequences from  facts  which  it  is  able  to  state,  and 
consequently  cannot  deduce  any  assurance  from  facts 
of  whose  existence  it  cannot  yet  have  any  knowledge 
through  the  medium  of  the  outward  senses;  but  for 
the  same  reason  it  can  realize  the  existence  of  a  Law 


62    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

by  which  the  as  yet  unmanifested  circumstances  may 
be  brought  into  manifestation.  Thus  used  in  its  right 
order,  the  intellect  becomes  the  handmaid  of  that  more 
interior  power  within  us  which  manipulates  the  un- 
seen substance  of  all  things,  and  which  we  may  call 
relative  first  cause. 


IX. 

CAUSES    AND    CONDITIONS. 

The  expression  "  relative  first  cause  "  has  been 
used  in  the  last  section  to  distinguish  the  action  of 
the  creative  principle  in  the  individiml  mind  from 
Universal  First  Cause  on  the  one  hand  and  from  sec- 
ondary causes  on  the  other.  As  it  exists  in  us,  pri- 
mary causation  is  the  power  to  initiate  a  train  of 
causation  directed  to  an  individual  purpose.  As  the 
power  of  initiating  a  fresh  sequence  of  cause  and 
effect  it  is  first  cause,  and  as  referring  to  an  indi- 
vidual purpose  it  is  relative,  and  it  may  therefore  be 
spoken  of  as  relative  first  cause,  or  the  power  of  pri- 
mary causation  manifested  by  the  individual.  The 
understanding  and  use  of  this  power  is  the  whole 
object  of  Mental  Science,  and  it  is  therefore  neces- 
sary that  the  student  should  clearly  see  the  relation 
between  causes  and  conditions.  A  simple  illustra- 
tion will  go  further  for  this  purpose  than  any  elabo- 
rate explanation.  If  a  lighted  candle  is  brought  into 
a  room  the  room  becomes  illuminated,  and  if  the 
candle  is  taken  away  it  becomes  dark  again.  Now 
the  illumination  and  the  darkness  are  both  conditions, 
the  one  positive  resulting  from  the  presence  of  the 

63 


64   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

light,  and  the  other  negative  resulting  from  its  ab- 
sence :  from  this  simple  example  we  therefore  see 
that  every  positive  condition  has  an  exactly  opposite 
negative  condition  corresponding  to  it,  and  that  this 
correspondence  results  from  their  being  related  to 
the  same  cause,  the  one  positively  and  the  other  nega- 
tively; and  hence  we  may  lay  down  the  rule  that  all 
positive  conditions  result  from  the  active  presence  of 
a  certain  cause,  and  all  negative  conditions  from  the 
absence  of  such  a  cause.  A  condition,  whether  posi- 
tive or  negative,  is  never  primary  cause,  and  the  pri- 
mary cause  of  any  series  can  never  be  negative,  for 
negation  is  the  condition  which  arises  from  the  ab- 
sence of  active  causation.  This  should  be  thoroughly 
understood  as  it  is  the  philosophic  basis  of  all  those 
"  denials  "  which  play  so  important  a  part  in  Mental 
Science,  and  which  may  be  summed  up  in  the  state- 
ment that  evil  being  negative,  or  privation  of  good, 
has  no  substantive  existence  in  itself.  Conditions, 
however,  whether  positive  or  negative,  are  no  sooner 
called  into  existence  than  they  become  causes  in  their 
turn  and  produce  further  conditions,  and  so  on  ad 
iniinitnm,  thus  giving  rise  to  the  whole  train  of  sec- 
ondary causes.  So  long  as  we  judge  only  from  the 
information  conveyed  to  us  by  the  outward  senses, 
we  are  working  on  the  plane  of  secondary  causation 
and  see  nothing  but  a  succession  of  conditions,  form- 
ing part  of  an  endless  train  of  antecedent  conditions 


Causes  and  Conditions.  65 

coming  out  of  the  past  and  stretching  away  into  the 
future,  and  from  this  point  of  view  we  are  under 
the  rule  of  an  iron  destiny  from  which  there  seems 
no  possibiHty  of  escape.  This  is  because  the  outward 
senses  are  only  capable  of  dealing  with  the  relations 
which  one  mode  of  limitation  bears  to  another,  for 
they  are  the  instruments  by  which  we  take  cognizance 
of  the  relative  and  the  conditioned.  Now  the  only 
way  of  escape  is  by  rising  out  of  the  region  of  sec- 
ondary causes  into  that  of  primary  causation,  where 
the  originating  energy  is  to  be  found  before  it  has  yet 
passed  into  manifestation  as  a  condition.  This  region 
is  to  be  found  unthin  ourselves;  it  is  the  region  of 
pure  ideas;  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  laid 
stress  on  the  two  aspects  of  spirit  as  pure  thought  and 
manifested  form.  The  thought-image  or  ideal  pat- 
tern of  a  thing  is  the  first  cause  relatively  to  that 
thing;  it  is  the  substance  of  that  thing  untrammelled 
by  any  antecedent  conditions. 

If  we  realize  that  all  visible  things  must  have  their 
origin  in  spirit,  then  the  whole  creation  around  us 
is  the  standing  evidence  that  the  starting-point  of 
all  things  is  in  thought-images  or  ideas,  for  no  other 
action  than  the  formation  of  such  images  can  be  con- 
ceived of  spirit  prior  to  its  manifestation  in  matter. 
If,  then,  this  is  spirit's  modus  operandi  for  self- 
expression,  we  have  only  to  transfer  this  conception 
from  the  scale  of  cosmic  spirit  working  on  the  plane 


66    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

of  the  universal  to  that  of  individualized  spirit  work- 
ing on  the  plane  of  the  particular,  to  see  that  the  for- 
mation of  an  ideal  image  by  means  of  our  thought  is 
setting  first  cause  in  motion  with  regard  to  this  spe- 
cific object.  There  is  no  difference  in  kind  between 
the  operation  of  first  cause  in  the  universal  and  in  the 
particular,  the  difference  is  only  a  difference  of  scale, 
but  the  power  itself  is  identical.  We  must  therefore 
always  be  very  clear  as  to  whether  we  are  consciously 
using  first  cause  or  not.  Note  the  word  "  con- 
sciously "  because,  whether  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, we  are  always  using  first  cause ;  and  it  was 
for  this  reason  I  emphasized  the  fact  that  the  Uni- 
versal Mind  is  purely  subjective  and  therefore  bound 
by  the  laws  which  apply  to  subjective  mind  on  what- 
ever scale.  Hence  we  are  always  impressing  some 
sort  of  ideas  upon  it,  whether  we  are  aware  of  the 
fact  or  not,  and  all  our  existing  limitations  result 
from  our  having  habitually  impressed  upon  it  that 
idea  of  limitation  which  we  have  imbibed  by  restrict- 
ing all  possibility  to  the  region  of  secondary  causes. 
But  now  when  investigation  has  shown  us  that  con- 
ditions are  never  causes  in  themselves,  but  only  the 
subsequent  links  of  a  chain  started  on  the  plane  of 
the  pure  ideal,  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  reverse  our 
method  of  thinking  and  regard  the  ideal  as  the  real, 
and  the  outward  manifestation  as  a  mere  reflection 
which  must  change  with  every  change  of  the  object 


Causes  and  Conditions.  67 

which  casts  it.  For  these  reasons  it  is  essential  to 
know  whether  we  are  consciously  making  use  of  first 
cause  with  a  definite  purpose  or  not,  and  the  criterion 
is  this.  If  we  regard  the  fulfihnent  of  our  purpose 
as  contingent  upon  any  circumstances,  past,  present, 
or  future,  we  are  not  making  use  of  first  cause;  we 
have  descended  to  the  level  of  secondary  causation, 
which  is  the  region  of  doubts,  fears,  and  limitations, 
all  of  which  we  are  impressing  upon  the  universal 
subjective  mind  with  the  inevitable  result  that  it  will 
build  up  corresponding  external  conditions.  But  if 
we  realize  that  the  region  of  secondary  causes  is 
the  region  of  mere  reflections  wc  shall  not  think 
of  our  purpose  as  contingent  on  any  conditions 
whatever,  but  shall  know  that  by  forming  the  idea 
of  it  in  the  absolute,  and  maintaining  that  idea, 
we  have  shaped  the  first  cause  into  the  desired 
form  and  can  await  the  result  with  cheerful  expec- 
tancy. 

It  is  here  that  we  find  the  importance  of  realizing 
spirit's  independence  of  time  and  space.  An  ideal, 
as  such,  cannot  be  formed  in  the  future.  It  must 
either  be  formed  here  and  now  or  not  be  formed 
at  all ;  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  every  teacher, 
who  has  ever  spoken  with  due  knowledge  of  the 
subject,  has  impressed  upon  his  followers  the  neces- 
sity of  picturing  to  themselves  the  fulfilment  of  their 
desires  as  already  accomplished  on  the  spiritual  plane, 


68    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

as  the  indispensable  condition  of  fulfilment  in  the  visi- 
ble and  concrete. 

When  this  is  properly  understood,  any  anxious 
thought  as  to  the  means  to  be  employed  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  our  purposes  is  seen  to  be  quite  unneces- 
sary. If  the  end  is  already  secured,  then  it  follows 
that  all  the  steps  leading  to  it  are  secured  also.  The 
means  will  pass  into  the  smaller  circle  of  our  con- 
scious activities  day  by  day  in  due  order,  and  then  we 
have  to  work  upon  them,  not  with  fear,  doubt,  or 
feverish  excitement,  but  calmly  and  joyously,  because 
we  know  that  the  end  is  already  secured,  and  that  our 
reasonable  use  of  such  means  as  present  themselves 
in  the  desired  direction  is  only  one  portion  of  a  much 
larger  co-ordinated  movement,  the  final  result  of 
which  admits  of  no  doubt.  Mental  Science  does  not 
offer  a  premium  to  idleness,  but  it  takes  all  work  out 
of  the  region  of  anxiety  and  toil  by  assuring  the 
worker  of  the  success  of  his  labour,  if  not  in  the  pre- 
cise form  he  anticipated,  then  in  some  other  still 
better  suited  to  his  requirements.  But  suppose,  when 
we  reach  a  point  where  some  momentous  decision  has 
to  be  made,  we  happen  to  decide  wrongly?  On  the 
hypothesis  that  the  end  is  already  secured  you  cannot 
decide  wrongly.  Your  right  decision  is  as  much  one 
of  the  necessary  steps  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  end 
as  any  of  the  other  conditions  leading  up  to  it,  and 
therefore,  while  being  careful  to  avoid  rash  action, 


Causes  and  Conditions.  69 

we  may  make  sure  that  the  same  Law  which  is  con- 
trolhng  the  rest  of  the  circumstances  in  the  right 
direction  will  influence  our  judgment  in  that  direction 
also.  To  get  good  results  we  must  properly  under- 
stand our  relation  to  the  great  impersonal  power  we 
are  using.  It  is  intelligent  and  we  are  intelligent, 
and  the  two  intelligencies  must  co-operate.  We  must 
not  fly  in  the  face  of  the  Law  by  expecting  it  to  do 
for  us  what  it  can  only  do  through  us;  and  we  must 
therefore  use  our  intelligence  with  the  knowledge  that 
it  is  acting  as  the  instrument  of  a  greater  intelligence ; 
and  because  we  have  this  knowledge  we  may,  and 
should,  cease  from  all  anxiety  as  to  the  final  result. 
In  actual  practice  we  must  first  form  the  ideal  con- 
ception of  our  object  with  the  definite  intention  of 
impressing  it  upon  the  universal  mind — it  is  this  in- 
tention which  takes  such  thought  out  of  the  region 
of  mere  casual  fancies — and  then  affirm  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  Law  is  sufficient  reason  for  a  calm 
expectation  of  a  corresponding  result,  and  that  there- 
fore all  necessary  conditions  will  come  to  us  in  due 
order.  We  can  then  turn  to  the  affairs  of  our  daily 
life  with  the  calm  assurance  that  the  initial  condi- 
tions are  either  there  already  or  will  soon  come  into 
view.  If  we  do  not  at  once  see  them,  let  us  rest  con- 
tent with  the  knowledge  that  the  spiritual  prototype 
is  already  in  existence  and  wait  till  some  circumstance 
pointing  in  the  desired  direction  begins  to  show  itself. 


yo    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

It  may  be  a  very  small  circumstance,  but  it  is  the 
direction  and  not  the  magnitude  which  is  to  be  taken 
into  consideration.  As  soon  as  we  see  it  we  should 
regard  it  as  the  first  sprouting  of  the  seed  we  have 
sown  in  the  Absolute,  and  do  calmly,  and  without 
excitement,  whatever  the  circumstances  may  seem  to 
require,  and  then  later  on  we  shall  see  that  this  doing 
will  in  turn  lead  to  further  circumstances  in  the  same 
direction  until  we  find  ourselves  conducted  step  by 
step  to  the  accomplishment  of  our  object.  In  this 
way  the  understanding  of  the  great  principle  of  the 
Law  of  Supply  will,  by  repeated  experiences,  deliver 
us  more  and  more  completely  out  of  the  region  of 
anxious  thought  and  toilsome  labour  and  bring  us 
into  a  new  world  where  the  useful  employment  of  all 
our  powers,  whether  mental  or  physical,  will  only 
be  an  unfolding  of  our  individuality  upon  the  lines 
of  its  own  nature,  and  therefore  a  perpetual  source 
of  health  and  happiness ;  a  sufficient  inducement, 
surely,  to  the  careful  study  of  the  laws  governing 
the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the  Universal 
Mind. 


X. 

INTUITION. 

We  have  seen  that  the  subjective  mind  is  amenable 
to  suggestion  by  the  objective  mind;  but  there  is  also 
an  action  of  the  subjective  mind  upon  the  objective. 
The  individual's  subjective  mind  is  his  own  inner- 
most self,  and  its  first  care  is  the  maintenance  of  the 
individuality  of  which  it  is  the  foundation ;  and  since 
it  is  pure  spirit  it  has  its  continual  existence  in  that 
plane  of  being  where  all  things  subsist  in  the  vmiver- 
sal  here  and  the  everlasting  now,  and  consequently 
can  inform  the  lower  mind  of  things  removed  from 
its  ken  either  by  distance  or  futurity.  As  the  absence 
of  the  conditions  of  time  and  space  must  logically 
concentrate  all  things  into  a  present  focus,  we  can 
assign  no  limit  to  the  subjective  mind's  power  of  per- 
ception, and  therefore  the  question  arises,  why  does 
it  not  keep  the  objective  mind  continually  informed 
on  all  points?  And  the  answer  is  that  it  would  do 
so  if  the  objective  mind  were  sufficiently  trained  to 
recognize  the  indications  given,  and  to  effect  this 
training  is  one  of  the  purposes  of  Mental  Science. 
When  once  we  recognize  the  position  of  the  sub- 
jective mind  as  the  supporter  of  the  whole  individual- 
6  71 


72    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  ISIental  Science. 

ity  we  cannot  doubt  that  much  of  what  we  take  to  be 
the  spontaneous  movement  of  the  objective  mind  has 
its  origin  in  the  subjective  mind  prompting  the  ob- 
jective mind  in  the  right  direction  without  our  being 
consciously  aware  of  it.  But  at  times  when  the  ur- 
gency of  the  case  seems  to  demand  it,  or  when,  for 
some  reason  3'et  unknown,  the  objective  mind  is  for  a 
while  more  closely  en  rapport  with  the  subjective 
mind,  the  interior  voice  is  heard  strongly  and  per- 
sistently ;  and  when  this  is  the  case  we  do  well  to  pay 
heed  to  it.  Want  of  space  forbids  me  to  give  ex- 
amples, but  doubtless  such  will  not  be  wanting  in  the 
reader's  experience. 

The  importance  of  understanding  and  following 
the  intuition  cannot  be  exaggerated,  but  I  candidly 
admit  the  great  practical  difficulty  of  keeping  the 
happy  mean  between  the  disregard  of  the  interior 
voice  and  allowing  ourselves  to  be  run  away  with  by 
groundless  fancies.  The  best  guide  is  the  knowledge 
that  comes  of  personal  experience  which  gradually 
leads  to  the  acquisition  of  a  sort  of  inward  sense  of 
touch  that  enables  us  to  distinguish  the  true  from 
the  false,  and  which  appears  to  grow  with  the  sin- 
cere desire  for  truth  and  with  the  recognition  of  the 
spirit  as  its  source.  The  only  general  principles  the 
writer  can  deduce  from  his  own  experience  are  that 
when,  in  spite  of  all  appearances  pointing  in  the 
direction  of  a  certain  line  of  conduct,  there  is  still 


Intuition.  73 

a  persistent  feeling  that  it  should  not  be  followed, 
in  the  majority  of  instances  it  will  be  found  that  the 
argument  of  the  objective  mind,  however  correct  on 
the  facts  objectively  known,  was  deficient  from  ig- 
norance of  facts  which  could  not  be  objectively 
known  at  the  time,  but  which  were  known  to  the  in- 
tuitive faculty.  Another  principle  is  that  our  very 
first  impression  of  feeling  on  any  subject  is  generally 
correct.  Before  the  objective  mind  has  begun  to 
argue  on  the  subject  it  is  like  the  surface  of  a  smooth 
lake  which  clearly  reflects  the  light  from  above;  but 
as  soon  as  it  begins  to  argue  from  outside  appearances 
these  also  throw  their  reflections  upon  its  surface,  so 
that  the  original  image  becomes  blurred  and  is  no 
longer  recognizable.  This  first  conception  is  very 
speedily  lost,  and  it  should  therefore  be  carefully 
observed  and  registered  in  the  memory  with  a  view 
to  testing  the  various  arguments  which  will  subse- 
quently arise  on  the  objective  plane.  It  is  however 
impossible  to  reduce  so  interior  an  action  as  that  of 
the  intuition  to  the  form  of  hard  and  fast  rules,  and 
beyond  carefully  noting  particular  cases  as  they  occur, 
probably  the  best  plan  for  the  student  will  be  to  in- 
clude the  whole  subject  of  intuition  in  the  general 
principle  of  the  Law  of  Attraction,  especially  if  he 
sees  how  this  law  interacts  with  that  personal  quality 
of  universal  spirit  of  which  we  have  already  spoken. 


XI. 

HEALING. 

The  subject  of  healing  has  been  elaborately  treated 
by  many  writers  and  fully  deserves  all  the  attention 
that  has  been  given  to  it,  but  the  object  of  these  lec- 
tures is  rather  to  ground  the  student  in  those  general 
principles  on  which  all  conscious  use  of  the  creative 
power  of  thought  is  based,  than  to  lay  down  formal 
rules  for  specific  applications  of  it.  I  will  therefore 
examine  the  broad  principles  which  appear  to  be 
common  to  the  various  methods  of  mental  healing 
which  are  in  use,  each  of  which  derives  its  efficacy, 
not  from  the  peculiarity  of  the  method,  but  from  it 
being  such  a  method  as  allows  the  higher  laws  of 
Nature  to  come  into  play.  Now  the  principle  uni- 
versally laid  down  by  all  mental  healers,  in  whatever 
various  tenrts  they  may  explain  it,  is  that  the  basis 
of  all  healing  is  a  change  in  belief.  The  sequence 
from  which  this  results  is  as  follows : — the  subjective 
mind  is  the  creative  faculty  within  us,  and  creates 
whatever  the  objective  mind  impresses  upon  it;  the 
objective  mind,  or  intellect,  impresses  its  thought 
upon  it;  the  thought  is  the  expression  of  the  belief; 
hence  whatever  the  subjective  mind  creates  is  the 

74 


Healing.  75 

reproduction  externally  of  our  beliefs.  Accordingly 
our  whole  object  is  to  change  our  beliefs,  and  we  can- 
not do  this  without  some  solid  ground  of  conviction 
of  the  falsity  of  our  old  beliefs  and  of  the  truth  of 
our  new  ones,  and  this  ground  we  find  in  that  law 
of  causation  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  explain. 
The  wrong  belief  which  externalizes  as  sickness  is 
the  belief  that  some  secondary  cause,  which  is  really 
only  a  condition,  is  a  primary  cause.  The  knowledge 
of  the  law  shows  that  there  is  only  one  primary  cause, 
and  this  is  the  factor  which  in  our  own  individuality 
we  call  subjective  or  sub-conscious  mind.  For  this 
reason  I  have  insisted  on  the  difference  between  plac- 
ing an  idea  in  the  sub-conscious  mind,  that  is,  on  the 
plane  of  the  absolute  and  without  reference  to  time 
and  space,  and  placing  the  same  idea  in  the  conscious 
intellectual  mind  which  only  perceives  things  as  re- 
lated to  time  and  space.  Now  the  only  conception 
you  can  have  of  yourself  in  the  absolute,  or  uncon- 
ditioned, is  as  purely  living  Spirit,  not  hampered  by 
conditions  of  any  sort,  and  therefore  not  subject  to 
illness ;  and  when  this  idea  is  firmly  impressed  on  the 
sub-conscious  mind,  it  will  externalize  it.  The  reason 
why  this  process  is  not  always  successful  at  the  first 
attempt  is  that  all  our  life  we  have  been  holding  the 
false  belief  in  sickness  as  a  substantial  entity  in  itself 
and  thus  being  a  primary  cause,  instead  of  being 
merely  a  negative  condition  resulting  from  the  ab- 


76    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

sence  of  a  primary  cause;  and  a  belief  which  has 
become  ingrained  from  childhood  cannot  be  eradi- 
cated at  a  moment's  notice.  We  often  find,  therefore, 
that  for  some  time  after  a  treatment  there  is  an 
improvement  in  the  patient's  health,  and  then  the  old 
symptoms  return.  This  is  because  the  new  belief 
in  his  own  creative  faculty  has  not  yet  had  time  to 
penetrate  down  to  the  innermost  depths  of  the  sub- 
conscious mind,  but  has  only  partially  entered  it. 
Each  succeeding  treatment  strengthens  the  sub-con- 
scious mind  in  its  hold  of  the  new  belief  until  at  last 
a  permanent  cure  is  effected.  This  is  the  method  of 
self-treatment  based  on  the  patient's  own  knowledge 
of  the  law  of  his  being. 

But  "  there  is  not  in  all  men  this  knowledge,"  or 
at  any  rate  not  such  a  full  recognition  of  it  as  will 
enable  them  to  give  successful  treatment  to  them- 
selves, and  in  these  cases  the  intervention  of  the 
healer  becomes  necessary.  The  only  difference  be- 
tween the  healer  and  the  patient  is  that  the  healer 
has  learnt  how  to  control  the  less  self-conscious  modes 
of  the  spirit  by  the  more  self-conscious  mode,  while 
the  patient  has  not  yet  attained  to  this  knowledge; 
and  what  the  healer  does  is  to  substitute  his  own 
objective  or  conscious  mentality,  which  is  will  joined 
to  intellect,  for  that  of  the  patient,  and  in  this  way 
to  find  entrance  to  his  sub-conscious  mind  and  im- 
press upon  it  the  suggestion  of  perfect  health. 


Healing.  77 

The  question  then  arises,  how  can  the  healer  sub- 
stitute his  own  conscious  mind  for  that  of  the  patient? 
and  the  answer  shows  the  practical  application  of 
those  very  abstract  principles  which  I  have  laid  down 
in  the  earlier  sections.  Our  ordinary  conception  of 
ourselves  is  that  of  an  individual  personality  which 
ends  where  another  personality  begins,  in  other 
words  that  the  two  personalities  are  entirely  sep- 
arate. This  is  an  error.  There  is  no  such  hard  and 
fast  line  of  demarcation  between  personalities,  and 
the  boundaries  between  one  and  another  can  be  in- 
creased or  reduced  in  rigidity  according  to  will,  in 
fact  they  may  be  temporarily  removed  so  completely 
that,  for  the  time  being,  the  two  personalities  become 
merged  into  one.  Now  the  action  which  takes  place 
between  healer  and  patient  depends  on  this  principle. 
The  patient  is  asked  by  the  healer  to  put  himself  in 
a  receptive  mental  attitude,  which  means  that  he  is  to 
exercise  his  volition  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the 
barrier  of  his  own  objective  personality  and  thus  af- 
fording entrance  to  the  mental  power  of  the  healer. 
On  his  side  also  the  healer  does  the  same  thing,  only 
with  this  difference,  that  while  the  patient  withdraws 
the  barrier  on  his  side  with  the  intention  of  admitting 
a  flowing-in,  the  healer  does  so  with  the  intention  of 
allowing  a  flowing-out :  and  thus  by  the  joint  action 
of  the  two  minds  the  barriers  of  both  personalities  are 
removed  and  the  direction  of  the  flow  of  volition  is 


78   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

determined,  that  is  to  say,  it  flows  from  the  healer  as 
actively  willing  to  give,  towards  the  patient  as  pass- 
ively willing  to  receive,  according  to  the  universal 
law  of  Nature  that  the  flow  must  always  be  from  the 
plenum  to  the  vacuum.  This  mutual  removal  of  the 
external  mental  barrier  between  healer  and  patient  is 
what  is  termed  establishing  a  rapport  between  them, 
and  here  we  find  one  most  valuable  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  laid  down  earlier  in  this  book, 
that  pure  spirit  is  present  in  its  entirety  at  every  point 
simultaneously.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  as  soon  as 
the  healer  realizes  that  the  barriers  of  external  per- 
sonality between  himself  and  his  patient  have  been 
removed,  he  can  then  speak  to  the  sub-conscious  mind 
of  the  patient  as  though  it  were  his  own,  for  both 
being  pure  spirit  the  thought  of  their  identity  makes 
them  identical,  and  both  are  concentrated  into  a  single 
entity  at  a  single  point  upon  which  the  conscious 
mind  of  the  healer  can  be  brought  to  bear,  according 
to  the  universal  principle  of  the  control  of  the  sub- 
jective mind  by  the  objective  mind  through  sugges- 
tion. It  is  for  this  reason  I  have  insisted  on  the 
distinction  between  pure  spirit,  or  spirit  conceived  of 
apart  from  extension  in  any  matrix  and  the  concep- 
tion of  it  as  so  extended.  If  we  concentrate  our 
mind  upon  the  diseased  condition  of  the  patient  we 
are  thinking  of  him  as  a  separate  personality,  and 
3.re  not  fixing  our  mind  upon  that  conception  of  him 


Healing.  79 

as  pure  spirit  which  will  afford  us  effectual  entry  to 

his  springs  of  being-.  We  must  therefore  withdraw 
our  thought  from  the  contemplation  of  symptoms, 
and  indeed  from  his  corporeal  personality  altogether, 
and  must  think  of  him  as  a  purely  spiritual  indi- 
viduality, and  as  such  entirely  free  from  subjection  to 
any  conditions,  and  consequently  as  voluntarily  ex- 
ternalizing the  conditions  most  expressive  of  the 
vitality  and  intelligence  which  pure  spirit  is.  Think- 
ing of  him  thus,  we  then  make  mental  affirmation 
that  he  shall  build  up  outwardly  the  correspondence 
of  that  perfect  vitality  which  he  knows  himself  to  be 
inwardly ;  and  this  suggestion  being  impressed  by  the 
healer's  conscious  thought,  while  the  patient's  con- 
scious thought  is  at  the  same  time  impressing  the  fact 
that  he  is  receiving  the  active  thought  of  the  healer, 
the  result  is  that  the  patient's  sub-conscious  mind  be- 
comes thoroughly  imbued  with  the  recognition  of  its 
own  life-giving  power,  and  according  to  the  recog- 
nized law  of  subjective  mentality  proceeds  to  work 
out  this  suggestion  into  external  manifestation,  and 
thus  health  is  substituted  for  sickness. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  purpose  of  the 
process  here  described  is  to  strengthen  the  subject's 
individuality,  not  to  dominate  it.  To  use  it  for 
domination  is  inversion,  bringing  its  appropriate 
penalty  to  the  operator. 

In  this  description  I  have  contemplated  the  case 


8o   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

where  the  patient  is  consciously  co-operating  with  the 
healer,  and  it  is  in  order  to  obtain  this  co-operation 
that  the  mental  healer  usually  makes  a  point  of  in- 
structing the  patient  in  the  broad  principles  of  Mental 
Science,  if  he  is  not  already  acquainted  with  them. 
But  this  is  not  always  advisable  or  possible.  Some- 
times the  statement  of  principles  opposed  to  existing 
prejudices  arouses  opposition,  and  any  active  antag- 
onism on  the  patient's  part  must  tend  to  intensify  the 
barrier  of  conscious  personality  which  it  is  the 
healer's  first  object  to  remove.  In  these  cases  noth- 
ing is  so  effective  as  absent  treatment.  If  the  stu- 
dent has  grasped  all  that  has  been  said  on  the  subject 
of  spirit  and  matter,  he  will  see  that  in  mental  treat- 
ment time  and  space  count  for  nothing,  because  the 
whole  action  takes  place  on  a  plane  where  these  con- 
ditions do  not  obtain ;  and  it  is  therefore  quite  im- 
material whether  the  patient  be  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  healer  or  in  a  distant  country.  Under 
these  circumstances  it  is  found  by  experience  that 
one  of  the  most  effectual  modes  of  mental  healing  is 
by  treatment  during  sleep,  because  then  the  patient's 
whole  system  is  naturally  in  a  state  of  relaxation 
which  prevents  him  offering  any  conscious  opposition 
to  the  treatment.  And  by  the  same  rule  the  healer 
also  is  able  to  treat  even  more  effectively  during  his 
own  sleep  than  while  waking.  Before  going  to  sleep 
he  firmly  impresses  on  his  subjective  mind  that  it  is 


Healing.  Si 

to  convey  curative  suggestion  to  the  subjective  mind 
of  the  patient,  and  then,  by  the  general  principles  of 
the  relation  between  subjective  and  objective  mind 
this  suggestion  is  carried  out  during  all  the  hours  that 
the  conscious  individuality  is  wrapped  in  repose. 
This  method  is  applicable  to  young  children  to  whom 
the  principles  of  the  science  cannot  be  explained ;  and 
also  to  persons  at  a  distance :  and  indeed  the  only  ad- 
vantage gained  by  the  personal  meeting  of  the  patient 
and  healer  is  in  the  instruction  that  can  be  orally 
given,  or  when  the  patient  is  at  that  early  stage  of 
knowledge  w^here  the  healer's  visible  presence  con- 
veys the  suggestion  that  something  is  then  being  done 
which  could  not  be  done  in  his  absence ;  otherwise  the 
presence  or  absence  of  the  patient  are  matters  per- 
fectly indifferent.  The  student  must  always  recollect 
that  the  sub-conscious  mind  does  not  have  to  work 
through  the  intellect  or  conscious  mind  to  produce  its 
curative  effects.  It  is  part  of  the  all-pervading 
creative  force  of  Nature,  while  the  intellect  is  not 
creative  but  distributive. 

From  mental  healing  it  is  but  a  step  to  telepathy, 
clairvoyance  and  other  kindred  manifestations  of 
transcendental  power  which  are  from  time  to  time 
exhibited  by  the  subjective  entity  and  which  follow 
laws  as  accurate  as  those  which  govern  what  we  are 
accustomed  to  consider  our  more  normal  faculties; 
but  these  subjects  do  not  properly  fall  within  the 


82   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

scope  of  a  book  whose  purpose  is  to  lay  down  the 
broad  principles  which  underlie  all  spiritual  phe- 
nomena. Until  these  are  clearly  understood  the  stu- 
dent cannot  profitably  attempt  the  detailed  study  of 
the  more  interior  powers ;  for  to  do  so  without  a  firm 
foundation  of  knowledge  and  some  experience  in 
its  practical  application  would  only  be  to  expose  him- 
self to  unknown  dangers,  and  would  be  contrary  to 
the  scientific  principle  that  the  advance  into  the 
unknown  can  only  be  made  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  known,  otherwise  we  only  come  into  a  confused 
region  of  guess-work  without  any  clearly  defined 
principles  for  our  guidance. 


XII. 

THE    WILL. 

The  Will  is  of  such  primary  importance  that  the 
student  should  be  on  his  guard  against  any  mistake 
as  to  the  position  which  it  holds  in  the  mental  econ- 
omy. Many  writers  and  teachers  insist  on  will-power 
as  though  that  were  the  creative  faculty.  No  doubt 
intense  will-power  can  evolve  certain  external  re- 
sults, but  like  all  other  methods  of  compulsion  it  lacks 
the  permanency  of  natural  growth.  The  appear- 
ances, forms,  and  conditions  produced  by  mere  inten- 
sity of  will-power  will  only  hang  together  so  long  as 
the  compelling  force  continues ;  but  let  it  be  exhausted 
or  withdrawn,  and  the  elements  thus  forced  into 
unnatural  combination  will  at  once  fly  back  to  their 
proper  affinities;  the  form  created  by  compulsion 
never  had  the  germ  of  vitality  in  itself  and  is  there- 
fore dissipated  as  soon  as  the  external  energy  which 
supported  it  is  withdrawn.  The  mistake  is  in  at- 
tributing the  creative  power  to  the  will,  or  perhaps 
I  should  say  in  attributing  the  creative  power  to 
ourselves  at  all.  The  truth  is  that  man  never  creates 
anything.  His  function  is,  not  to  create,  but  to  com- 
bine and  distribute  that  which  is  already  in  being,  and 

83 


84    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

what  we  call  our  creations  are  new  combinations  of 
already  existing  material,  whether  mental  or  cor- 
poreal. This  is  amply  demonstrated  in  the  physical 
sciences.  No  one  speaks  of  creating  energy,  but  only 
of  transforming  one  form  of  energy  into  another; 
and  if  we  realize  this  as  a  universal  principle,  we  shall 
see  that  on  the  mental  plane  as  well  as  on  the  physical 
we  never  create  energy  but  only  provide  the  condi- 
tions by  which  the  energy  already  existing  in  one 
mode  can  exhibit  itself  in  another:  therefore  what, 
relatively  to  man,  we  call  his  creative  power,  is  that 
receptive  attitude  of  expectancy  which,  so  to  say, 
makes  a  mould  into  which  the  plastic  and  as  yet  un- 
differentiated substance  can  flow  and  take  the  desired 
form.  The  will  has  much  the  same  place  in  our 
mental  machinery  that  the  tool-holder  has  in  a  power- 
lathe  :  it  is  not  the  power,  but  it  keeps  the  mental 
faculties  in  that  position  relatively  to  the  power  which 
enables  it  to  do  the  desired  work.  If,  using  the 
word  in  its  widest  sense,  we  may  say  that  the  imagi- 
nation is  the  creative  function,  we  may  call  the  will 
the  centralizing  principle.  Its  function  is  to  keep 
the  imagination  centred  in  the  right  direction.  We 
are  aiming  at  consciously  controlling  our  mental 
powers  instead  of  letting  them  hurry  us  hither  and 
thither  in  a  purposeless  manner,  and  we  must  there- 
fore understand  the  relation  of  these  powers  to  each 
other  for  the  production  of  external  results.     First 


The  Will.  85 

the  whole  train  of  causation  is  started  by  some  emo- 
tion which  gives  rise  to  a  desire ;  next  the  judgment 
determines  whether  we  shall  externalize  this  desire 
or  not;  then  the  desire  having  been  approved  by  the 
judgment,  the  will  comes  forward  and  directs  the 
imagination  to  form  the  necessary  spiritual  proto- 
type ;  and  the  imagination  thus  centred  on  a  particular 
object  creates  the  spiritual  nucleus,  which  in  its  turn 
acts  as  a  centre  round  which  the  forces  of  attraction 
begin  to  work,  and  continue  to  operate  until,  by  the 
law  of  growth,  the  concrete  result  becomes  perceptible 
to  our  external  senses. 

The  business  of  the  will,  then,  is  to  retain  the  vari- 
ous faculties  of  our  mind  in  that  position  where  they 
are  really  doing  the  work  we  wish,  and  this  position 
may  be  generalized  into  the  three  following  attitudes : 
either  we  wish  to  act  upon  something,  or  be  acted 
on  by  it,  or-  to  maintain  a  neutral  position ;  in  other 
words  we  either  intend  to  project  a  force,  or  receive  a 
force,  or  keep  a  position  of  inactivity  relatively  to 
some  particular  object.  Now  the  judgment  deter- 
mines which  of  these  three  positions  we  shall  take 
up,  the  consciously  active,  the  consciously  receptive, 
or  the  consciously  neutral;  and  then  the  function  of 
the  will  is  simply  to  maintain  the  position  we  have 
determined  upon;  and  if  we  maintain  any  given 
mental  attitude  we  may  reckon  with  all  certainty  on 
the   law   of  attraction  drawing  us  to  those  corre- 


86    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

spondences  which  exteriorly  symboHze  the  attitude  in 
question.  This  is  very  different  from  the  semi-animal 
screwing-up  of  the  nervous  forces  which,  with  some 
people,  stands  for  will-power.  It  implies  no  strain 
on  the  nervous  system  and  is  consequently  not  fol- 
lowed by  any  sense  of  exhaustion.  The  will-power, 
when  transferred  from  the  region  of  the  lower  men- 
tality to  the  spiritual  plane,  becomes  simply  a  calm 
and  peaceful  determination  to  retain  a  certain  mental 
attitude  in  spite  of  all  temptations  to  the  contrary, 
knowing  that  by  doing  so  the  desired  result  will  cer- 
tainly appear. 

The  training  of  the  will  and  its  transference  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher  plane  of  our  nature  are  among 
the  first  objects  of  Mental  Science.  The  man  is 
summed  up  in  his  will.  Whatever  he  does  by  his 
own  will  is  his  own  act;  whatever  he  does  without 
the  consent  of  his  will  is  not  his  own  act  but  that  of 
the  power  by  which  his  will  was  coerced ;  but  we  must 
recognize  that,  on  the  mental  plane,  no  other  indi- 
viduality can  obtain  control  over  our  will  unless  we 
first  allow  it  to  do  so;  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
all  legitimate  use  of  Mental  Science  is  towards  the 
strengthening  of  the  will,  whether  in  ourselves  or 
others,  and  bringing  it  under  the  control  of  an  en- 
lightened reason.  When  the  will  realizes  its  power 
to  deal  with  first  cause  it  is  no  longer  iiccessary  for 
the  operator  to  state  to  himself  in  extenso  all  the 


The  Will  87 

philosophy  of  its  action  every  time  he  wishes  to  use 
it,  but,  knowing  that  the  trained  will  is  a  tremendous 
spiritual  force  acting  on  the  plane  of  first  cause,  he 
simply  expresses  his  desire  with  the  intention  of 
operating  on  that  plane,  and  knows  that  the  desire 
thus  expressed  will  in  due  time  externalize  itself  as 
concrete  fact.  He  now  sees  that  the  point  which 
really  demands  his  earnest  attention  is  not  whether  he 
possesses  the  power  of  externalizing  any  results  he 
chooses,  but  of  learning  to  choose  wisely  what  re- 
sults to  produce.  For  let  us  not  suppose  that  even 
the  highest  powers  will  take  us  out  of  the  law  of 
cause  and  efifect.  We  can  never  set  any  cause  in  mo- 
tion without  calling  forth  those  effects  which  it 
already  contains  in  embryo  and  which  will  again 
become  causes  in  their  turn,  thus  producing  a  series 
which  must  continue  to  flow  on  until  it  is  cut  short 
by  bringing  into  operation  a  cause  of  an  opposite 
character  to  the  one  which  originated  it.  Thus  we 
shall  find  the  field  for  the  exercise  of  our  intelligence 
continually  expanding  with  the  expansion  of  our 
powers;  for,  granted  a  good  intention,  we  shall  al- 
ways wish  to  contemplate  the  results  of  our  action  as 
far  as  our  intelligence  will  permit.  We  may  not  be 
able  to  see  very  far,  but  there  is  one  safe  general 
principle  to  be  gained  from  what  has  already  been 
said  about  causes  and  conditions,  which  is  that  the 
whole  sequence  always  partakes  of  the  same  char- 
7 


88    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

acter  as  the  initial  cause :  if  that  character  is  negative, 
that  is,  destitute  of  any  desire  to  externaHze  kindness, 
cheerfulness,  strength,  beauty  or  some  other  sort  of 
good,  this  negative  quality  will  make  itself  felt  all 
down  the  line;  but  if  the  opposite  affirmative  char- 
acter is  in  the  original  motive,  then  it  will  reproduce 
its  kind  in  forms  of  love,  joy,  strength  and  beauty 
with  unerring  precision.  Before  setting  out,  there- 
fore, to  produce  new  conditions  by  the  exercise  of 
our  thought-power  we  should  weigh  carefully  what 
further  results  they  are  likely  to  lead  to;  and  here, 
again,  we  shall  find  an  ample  field  for  the  training  of 
our  will,  in  learning  to  acquire  that  self-control  which 
will  enable  us  to  postpone  an  inferior  present  satis- 
faction to  a  greater  prospective  good. 

These  considerations  naturally  lead  us  to  the  sub- 
ject of  concentration.  I  have  just  now  pointed  out 
that  all  duly  controlled  mental  action  consists  in  hold- 
ing the  mind  in  one  of  three  attitudes;  but  there  is 
a  fourth  mental  condition,  which  is  that  of  letting 
our  mental  functions  run  on  without  our  will  direct- 
ing them  to  any  definite  purpose.  It  is  on  this  word 
purpose  that  we  must  fix  our  whole  attention;  and 
instead  of  dissipating  our  energies,  we  must  follow 
an  intelligent  method  of  concentration.  The  word 
means  being  gathered  up  at  a  centre,  and  the  centre 
of  anything  is  that  point  in  which  all  its  forces  are 
equally  balanced.     To  concentrate  therefore  means 


The  Will  89 

first  to  bring-  our  minds  into  a  condition  of  equilib- 
rium which  will  enable  us  to  consciously  direct  the 
flow  of  spirit  to  a  definitely  recognized  purpose,  and 
then  carefully  to  guard  our  thoughts  from  inducing  a 
flow  in  the  opposite  direction.  We  must  always  bear 
in  mind  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  wonderful  poten- 
tial energy  which  is  not  yet  differentiated  into  any 
particular  mode,  and  that  by  the  action  of  our  mind 
we  can  differentiate  it  into  any  specific  mode  of  ac- 
tivity that  we  will ;  and  by  keeping  our  thought  fixed 
on  the  fact  that  the  inflow  of  this  energy  is  taking 
place  and  that  by  our  mental  attitude  we  are  deter- 
mining its  direction,  we  shall  gradually  realize  a 
corresponding  externalization.  Proper  concentration, 
therefore,  does  not  consist  of  strenuous  effort  which 
exhausts  the  nervous  system  and  defeats  its  own  ob- 
ject by  suggesting  the  consciousness  of  an  adverse 
force  to  be  fought  against,  aiid  thus  creating  the  ad- 
verse circumstances  W'C  dread;  but  in  shutting  out  all 
thoughts  of  a  kind  that  would  disperse  the  spiritual 
nucleus  we  are  forming  and  dwelling  cheerfully  on 
the  knowledge  that,  because  the  law  is  certain  in  its 
action,  our  desire  is  certain  of  accomplishment. 
The  other  great  principle  to  be  remembered  is  that 
concentration  is  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the 
quality  we  are  going  to  give  to  the  previously  undif- 
ferentiated energy  rather  than  to  arrange  the  specific 
circumstances  of  its  manifestation.     That  is  the  work 


90   The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

of  the  creative  energy  itself,  which  will  build  up  its 
own  forms  of  expression  quite  naturally  if  we  allow 
it,  thus  saving  us  a  great  deal  of  needless  anxiety. 
What  we  really  want  is  expansion  in  a  certain  direc- 
tion, whether  of  health,  wealth,  or  what  not :  and  so 
long  as  we  get  this,  what  does  it  matter  whether  it 
reaches  us  through  some  channel  which  we  thought 
we  could  reckon  upon  or  through  some  other  whose 
existence  we  had  not  suspected.  It  is  the  fact  that 
we  are  concentrating  energy  of  a  particular  kind  for 
a  particular  purpose  that  we  should  fix  our  minds 
upon,  and  not  look  upon  any  specific  details  as  essen- 
tial to  the  accomplishment  of  our  object. 

These  are  the  two  golden  rules  regarding  concen- 
tration; but  we  must  not  suppose  that  because  we 
have  to  be  on  our  guard  against  idle  drifting  there  is 
to  be  no  such  thing  as  repose;  on  the  contrary  it  is 
during  periods  of  repose  that  we  accumulate  strength 
for  action;  but  repose  does  not  mean  a  state  of  pur- 
poselessness.  As  pure  spirit  the  subjective  mind 
never  rests :  it  is  only  the  objective  mind  in  its  con- 
nection with  the  physical  body  that  needs  rest;  and 
though  there  are  no  doubt  times  when  the  greatest 
possible  rest  is  to  be  obtained  by  stopping  the  action 
of  our  conscious  thought  altogether,  the  more  gen- 
erally advisable  method  is  by  changing  the  direction 
of  the  thought  and,  instead  of  centering  it  upon 
something  we  intend  to  do,  letting  it  dwell  quietly 


The  Will.  91 

upon  what  we  arc.  This  direction  of  thought  might, 
of  course,  develop  into  the  deepest  philosophical 
speculation,  but  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  be 
always  either  consciously  projecting  our  forces  to 
produce  some  external  effect  or  working  out  the  de- 
tails of  some  metaphysical  problem;  but  we  may 
simply  realize  ourselves  as  part  of  the  universal 
livingness  and  thus  gain  a  quiet  centralization,  which, 
though  maintained  by  a  conscious  act  of  the  volition, 
is  the  very  essence  of  rest.  From  this  standpoint  we 
see  that  all  is  Life  and  all  is  Good,  and  that  Nature, 
from  her  clearly  visible  surface  to  her  most  arcane 
depths,  is  one  vast  storehouse  of  life  and  good  en- 
tirely devoted  to  our  individual  use.  We  have  the 
key  to  all  her  treasures,  and  we  can  now  apply  our 
knowledge  of  the  law  of  being  without  entering  into 
all  those  details  which  are  only  needed  for  purposes 
of  study,  and  doing  so  we  find  it  results  in  our  having 
acquired  the  consciousness  of  our  oneness  zvith  the 
whole.  This  is  the  great  secret :  and  when  we  have 
once  fathomed  it  we  can  enjoy  our  possession  of  the 
whole,  or  of  any  part  of  it,  because  by  our  recogni- 
tion we  have  made  it,  and  can  increasingly  make  it, 
our  own.  Whatever  most  appeals  to  us  at  any  par- 
ticular time  or  place  is  that  mode  of  the  universal 
living  spirit  with  which  at  that  moment  we  are  most 
in  touch,  and  realizing  this,  we  shall  draw  from  it 
streams  of  vital  energy  which  will  make  the  very 


92    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

sensation  of  livingness  a  joy  and  will  radiate  from 
us  as  a  sphere  of  vibration  that  can  deflect  all  injuri- 
ous suggestion  on  whatever  plane.  We  may  not  have 
literary,  artistic,  or  scientific  skill  to  present  to  others 
the  results  of  our  communings  with  Nature,  but  the 
joy  of  this  sympathetic  indrawing  will  nevertheless 
produce  a  corresponding  outflow  manifesting  itself  in 
the  happier  look  and  kindlier  mien  of  him  who  thus 
realizes  his  oneness  with  every  aspect  of  the  whole. 
He  realizes — and  this  is  the  great  point  in  that  atti- 
tude of  mind  which  is  not  directed  to  any  specific 
external  object — that,  for  himself,  he  is,  and  always 
must  be  the  centre  of  all  this  galaxy  of  Life,  and 
thus  he  contemplates  himself  as  seated  at  the  centre 
of  infinitude,  not  an  infinitude  of  blank  space,  but 
pulsating  with  living  being,  in  all  of  which  he  knows 
that  the  true  essence  is  nothing  but  good.  This  is 
the  very  opposite  to  a  selfish  self-centredness :  it  is 
the  centre  where  we  find  that  we  both  receive  from 
all  and  flow  out  to  all.  Apart  from  this  principle  of 
circulation  there  is  no  true  life,  and  if  we  contem- 
plate our  central  position  only  as  affording  us  greater 
advantages  for  in-taking,  we  have  missed  the  whole 
point  of  our  studies  by  missing  the  real  nature  of  the 
Life-principle,  which  is  action  and  re-action.  If  we 
would  have  life  enter  into  us,  we  ourselves  must  enter 
into  life — enter  into  the  spirit  of  it,  just  as  we  must 
enter  into  the  spirit  of  a  book  or  a  game  to  enjoy  it. 


The  Will  93 

There  can  be  no  action  at  a  centre  only.  There  must 
be  a  perpetual  flowing  out  towards  the  circumference, 
and  thence  back  again  to  the  centre  to  maintain  a  vital 
activity;  otherwise  collapse  must  ensue  either  from 
anaemia  or  congestion.  But  if  we  realize  the  recipro- 
cal nature  of  the  vital  pulsation,  and  that  the  out- 
flowing consists  in  the  habit  of  mind  which  gives 
itself  to  the  good  it  sees  in  others,  rather  than  in  any 
specific  actions,  then  we  shall  find  that  the  cultivation 
of  this  disposition  will  provide  innumerable  avenues 
for  the  universal  livingness  to  flow  through  us, 
whether  as  giving  or  receiving,  which  we  had  never 
before  suspected :  and  this  action  and  re-action  will 
so  build  up  our  own  vitality  that  each  day  will  find 
us  more  thoroughly  alive  than  any  that  had  preceded 
it.  This,  then,  is  the  attitude  of  repose  in  which  we 
may  enjoy  all  the  beauties  of  science,  literature  and 
art  or  may  peacefully  commune  with  the  spirit  of 
nature  without  the  aid  of  any  third  mind  to  act  as 
its  interpreter,  which  is  still  a  purposeful  attitude 
although  not  directed  to  a  specific  object:  we  have 
not  allowed  the  will  to  relax  its  control,  but  have 
merely  altered  its  direction;  so  that  for  action  and 
repose  alike  we  find  that  our  strength  lies  in  our 
recognition  of  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  of  our- 
selves as  individual  concentrations  of  it. 


XIII. 

IN  TOUCH  WITH  SUB-CONSCIOUS  MIND. 

The  preceding  pages  have  made  the  student  in 
some  measure  aware  of  the  immense  importance  of 
our  deaHngs  with  the  sub-conscious  mind.  Our  rela- 
tion to  it,  whether  on  the  scale  of  the  individual  or 
the  universal,  is  the  key  to  all  that  we  are  or  ever  can 
be.  In  its  unrecognized  working  it  is  the  spring  of 
all  that  we  can  call  the  automatic  action  of  mind  and 
body,  and  on  the  universal  scale  it  is  the  silent  power 
of  evolution  gradually  working  onwards  to  that 
"  divine  event,  to  which  the  whole  creation  moves  " ; 
and  by  our  conscious  recognition  of  it  we  make  it, 
relatively  to  ourselves,  all  that  we  believe  it  to  be. 
The  closer  our  rapport  with  it  becomes,  the  more 
what  we  have  hitherto  considered  automatic  action, 
whether  in  our  bodies  or  our  circumstances,  will  pass 
under  our  control,  until  at  last  we  shall  control  our 
whole  individual  world.  Since,  then,  this  is  the  stu- 
pendous issue  involved,  the  question  how  we  are  to 
put  ourselves  practically  in  touch  with  the  sub-con- 
scious mind  is  a  very  important  one.  Now  the  clue 
which  gives  us  the  right  direction  is  to  be  found  in 
the   impersonal   quality   of    sub-conscious   mind    of 

94 


In  Touch  zvith  Sub-conscious  Mind.  95 

which  I  have  spoken.  Not  impersonal  as  lacking  the 
elements  of  personality;  nor  even,  in  the  case  of  in- 
dividual subjective  mind,  as  lacking  the  sense  of 
individuality;  but  impersonal  in  the  sense  of  not 
recognizing  the  particular  external  relations  which 
appear  to  the  objective  mind  to  constitute  its  per- 
sonality, and  having  a  realization  of  itself  quite  inde- 
pendent of  them.  If,  then,  we  would  come  in  touch 
with  it  we  must  meet  it  on  its  own  ground.  It  can 
see  things  only  from  the  deductive  standpoint,  and 
therefore  cannot  take  note  of  the  inductive  standpoint 
from  which  we  construct  the  idea  of  our  external 
personality;  and  accordingly  if  we  would  put  our- 
selves in  touch  with  it,  we  cannot  do  so  by  bringing 
it  down  to  the  level  of  the  external  and  non-essential 
but  only  by  rising  to  its  own  level  on  the  plane  of  the 
interior  and  essential.  How  can  this  be  done?  Let 
two  well-known  writers  answer.  Rudyard  Kipling 
tells  us  in  his  story  of  "  Kim  "  how  the  boy  used  at 
times  to  lose  his  sense  of  personality  by  repeating  to 
himself  the  question,  Who  is  Kim?  Gradually  his 
personality  would  seem  to  fade  and  he  would  experi- 
ence a  feeling  of  passing  into  a  grander  and  a  wider 
life,  in  which  the  boy  Kim  was  unknown,  while  his 
own  conscious  individuality  remained,  only  exalted 
and  expanded  to  an  inconceivable  extent ;  and  in  Ten- 
nyson's life  by  his  son  we  are  told  that  at  times  the 
poet  had  a  similar  experience.    We  come  into  touch 


96    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

with  the  absolute  exactly  in  proportion  as  we  with- 
draw ourselves  from  the  relative :  they  vary  inversely 
to  each  other. 

For  the  purpose,  then,  of  getting  into  touch  with 
our  sub-conscious  mind  we  must  endeavour  to  think 
of  ourselves  as  pure  being,  as  that  entity  which  in- 
teriorly supports  the  outward  manifestation,  and  do- 
ing so  we  shall  realize  that  the  essential  quality  of 
pure  being  must  be  good.  It  is  in  itself  pure  Life, 
and  as  such  cannot  desire  anything  detrimental  to 
pure  Life  under  whatever  form  manifested.  Conse- 
quently the  purer  our  intentions  the  more  readily  we 
shall  place  ourself  en  rapport  with  our  subjective 
entity ;  and  a  fortiori  the  same  applies  to  that  Greater 
Sub-conscious  Mind  of  which  our  individual  sub- 
jective mind  is  a  particular  manifestation.  In  actual 
practice  the  process  consists  in  first  forming  a  clear 
conception  in  the  objective  mind  of  the  idea  we  wish 
to  convey  to  the  subjective  mind:  then,  when  this  has 
been  firmly  grasped,  endeavour  to  lose  sight  of  all 
other  facts  connected  with  the  external  personality 
except  the  one  in  question,  and  then  mentally  address 
the  subjective  mind  as  though  it  were  an  independent 
entity  and  impress  upon  it  what  you  want  it  to  do  or 
to  believe.  Everyone  must  formulate  his  own  way 
of  working,  but  one  method,  which  is  both  simple  and 
effective  is  to  say  to  the  subjective  mind,  "  This  is 
what  I  want  you  to  do;  you  will  now  step  into  my 


In  Touch  with  Sub-conscious  Mind.  97 

place  and  do  it,  bringing  all  your  powers  and  intelli- 
gence to  bear,  and  considering  yourself  to  be  none 
other  than  myself."  Having  done  this  return  to  the 
realization  of  your  own  objective  personality  and 
leave  the  subjective  mind  to  perform  its  task  in 
full  confidence  that,  by  the  law  of  its  nature,  it  will 
do  so  if  not  hindered  by  a  repetition  of  contrary  mes- 
sages from  the  objective  mind.  This  is  not  a  mere 
fancy  but  a  truth  daily  proved  by  the  experience  of 
increasing  numbers.  The  facts  have  not  been  fabri- 
cated to  fit  the  theory,  but  the  theory  has  been  built 
up  by  careful  observation  of  the  facts;  and  since  it 
has  been  shown  both  by  theory  and  practice  that  such 
is  the  law  of  the  relation  between  subjective  and  ob- 
jective mind,  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  a 
very  momentous  question.  Is  there  any  reason  why 
the  laws  which  hold  good  of  the  individual  subjective 
mind  should  not  hold  good  of  the  Universal  Mind 
also?  and  the  answer  is  that  there  is  not.  As  has 
been  already  shown  the  Universal  Mind  must,  by  its 
very  universality,  be  purely  subjective,  and  what  is 
the  law  of  a  part  must  also  be  the  law  of  the  whole : 
the  qualities  of  fire  are  the  same  whether  the  centres 
of  combustion  be  great  or  small,  and  therefore  we 
may  well  conclude  these  lectures  by  considering  what 
will  be  the  result  if  we  apply  what  we  have  learnt 
regarding  the  individual  subjective  mind  to  the  Uni- 
versal Mind. 


98    The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

We  have  learnt  that  the  three  great  facts  regard- 
ing subjective  mind  are  its  creative  power,  its  amen- 
ableness  to  suggestion,  and  its  inabihty  to  work  by 
any  other  than  the  deductive  method.  This  last  is 
an  exceedingly  important  point,  for  it  implies  that  the 
action  of  the  subjective  mind  is  in  no  way  limited  by 
precedent.  The  inductive  method  works  on  principles 
inferred  from  an  already  existing  pattern,  and  there- 
fore at  the  best  only  produces  the  old  thing  in  a  new 
shape.  But  the  deductive  method  works  according 
to  the  essence  or  spirit  of  the  principle,  and  does  not 
depend  on  any  previous  concrete  manifestation  for  its 
apprehension  of  it;  and  this  latter  method  of  working 
must  necessarily  be  that  of  the  all-originating  Mind, 
for  since  there  could  be  no  prior  existing  pattern  from 
which  it  could  learn  the  principles  of  construction, 
the  want  of  a  pattern  would  have  prevented  its  creat- 
ing anything  had  its  method  been  inductive  instead  of 
deductive.  Thus  by  the  necessity  of  the  case  the 
Universal  Mind  must  act  deductively,  that  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  which  has  been  found  true  of  individual 
subjective  mind.  It  is  thus  not  bound  by  any  prece- 
dent, which  means  that  its  creative  power  is  absolutely 
unlimited;  and  since  it  is  essentially  subjective  mind, 
and  not  objective  mind,  it  is  entirely  amenable  to 
suggestion.  Now  it  is  an  unavoidable  inference  from 
the  identity  of  the  law  governing  subjective  mind, 
whether  in  the  individual  or  the  universal,  that  just 


hi  Touch  zi'ith  Sub-consciotis  Mind.  99 

as  we  can  by  suggestion  impress  a  certain  character 
of  personality  upon  the  individual  subjective  mind,  so 
we  can,  and  do,  upon  the  Universal  Mind ;  and  it  is 
for  this  reason  that  I  have  drawn  attention  to  the 
inherent  personal  quality  of  pure  spirit  when  con- 
templated in  its  most  interior  plane.  It  becomes, 
therefore,  the  most  important  of  all  considerations 
with  what  character  we  invest  the  Universal  Mind; 
for  since  our  relation  to  it  is  purely  subjective  it  will 
infallibly  bear  to  us  exactly  that  character  which  we 
impress  upon  it;  in  other  words  it  will  be  to  us  ex- 
actly what  we  believe  it  to  be.  This  is  simply  a  log- 
ical inference  from  the  fact  that,  as  subjective  mind, 
our  primary  relation  to  it  can  only  be  on  the  sub- 
jective plane,  and  indirectly  our  objective  relations 
must  also  spring  from  the  same  source.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  that  remarkable  passage  twice  repeated  in 
the  Bible,  "  With  the  pure  thou  wilt  show  thyself 
pure,  and  w^ith  the  froward  thou  wilt  show  thyself 
froward  "  (Ps.  xviii.,  26,  and  II.  Sam.  xxii.,  27),  for 
the  context  makes  it  clear  that  these  words  are  ad- 
dressed to  the  Divine  Being.  The  spiritual  kingdom 
is  zvithin  us,  and  as  we  realize  it  there  so  it  becomes 
to  us  a  reality.  It  is  the  unvarying  law  of  the  sub- 
jective life  that  "  as  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is 
he,"  that  is  to  say,  his  inward  subjective  states  are  the 
only  true  reality,  and  what  we  cal-1  external  realities 
are    only    their    objective    correspondences.      If    we 


ICO  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

thoroughly  reaHze  the  truth  that  the  Universal  Mind 
must  be  to  us  exactly  according  to  our  conception  of 
it,  and  that  this  relation  is  not  merely  imaginary  but 
by  the  law  of  subjective  mind  must  be  to  us  an  actual 
fact  and  the  foundation  of  all  other  facts,  then  it  is 
impossible  to  over-estimate  the  importance  of  the 
conception  of  the  Universal  Mind  which  we  adopt. 
To  the  uninstructed  there  is  little  or  no  choice :  they 
form  a  conception  in  accordance  with  the  tradition 
they  have  received  from  others,  and  until  they  have 
learnt  to  think  for  themselves,  they  have  to  abide  by 
the  results  of  that  tradition :  for  natural  laws  admit 
of  no  exceptions,  and  however  faulty  the  traditional 
idea  may  be,  its  acceptance  will  involve  a  correspond- 
ing reaction  upon  the  Universal  Mind,  which  will  in 
turn  be  reflected  into  the  conscious  mind  and  external 
life  of  the  individual.  But  those  who  understand  the 
law  of  the  subject  will  have  no  one  but  themselves 
to  blame  if  they  do  not  derive  all  possible  benefits 
from  it.  The  greatest  Teacher  of  Mental  Science  the 
world  has  ever  seen  has  laid  down  sufficiently  plain 
rules  for  our  guidance.  With  a  knowledge  of  the 
subject  whose  depth  can  be  appreciated  only  by  those 
who  have  themselves  some  practical  acquaintance 
with  it,  He  bids  His  unlearned  audiences,  those  com- 
mon people  who  heard  Him  gladly,  picture  to  them- 
selves the  Universal  Mind  as  a  benign  Father,  ten- 
derly compassionate  of  all  and  sending  the  common 


In  Touch  zvitli  Siih-conscioiis  Mind.         loi 

bounties  of  Nature  alike  on  the  evil  and  the  good; 
but  He  also  pictured  It  as  exercising  a  special  and 
peculiar  care  over  those  who  recognize  Its  willingness 
to  do  so : — "  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  num- 
bered," and  **  ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  spar- 
rows." Prayer  was  to  be  made  to  the  unseen  Being, 
not  with  doubt  or  fear,  but  with  the  absolute  assur- 
ance of  a  certain  answer,  and  no  limit  was  to  be  set 
to  its  power  or  willingness  to  work  for  us.  But  to 
those  w^ho  did  not  thus  realize  it,  the  Great  Mind  is 
necessarily  the  adversary  who  casts  them  into  prison 
until  they  have  paid  the  uttermost  farthing;  and  thus 
in  all  cases  the  Master  impressed  upon  his  hearers 
the  exact  correspondence  of  the  attitude  of  this  un- 
seen Power  towards  them  with  their  own  attitude 
towards  it.  Such  teaching  was  not  a  narrow  an- 
thropomorphism but  the  adaptation  to  the  intellectual 
capacity  of  the  unlettered  multitude  of  the  very 
deepest  truths  of  what  we  now  call  Mental  Science. 
And  the  basis  of  it  all  is  the  cryptic  personality  of 
spirit  hidden  throughout  the  infinite  of  Nature  under 
every  form  of  manifestation.  As  unalloyed  Life  and 
Intelligence  it  can  be  no  other  than  good,  it  can  enter- 
tain no  intention  of  evil,  and  thus  all  intentional  evil 
must  put  us  in  opposition  to  it,  and  so  deprive  us  of 
the  consciousness  of  its  guidance  and  strengthening 
and  thus  leave  us  to  grope  our  own  way  and  fight  our 
own  battle  single-handed  against  the  universe,  odds 


I02  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

which  at  last  will  surely  prove  too  great  for  us.  But 
remember  that  the  opposition  can  never  be  on  the  part 
of  the  Universal  Mind,  for  in  itself  it  is  sub-conscious 
mind ;  and  to  suppose  any  active  opposition  taken  on 
its  own  initiative  would  be  contrary  to  all  we  have 
learnt  as  to  the  nature  of  sub-conscious  mind  whether 
in  the  individual  or  the  universal ;  the  position  of  the 
Universal  Mind  towards  us  is  always  the  reflection 
of  our  own  attitude.  Therefore  although  the  Bible 
is  full  of  threatening  against  those  who  persist  in 
conscious  opposition  to  the  Divine  Law  of  Good,  it 
is  on  the  other  hand  full  of  promises  of  immediate 
and  full  forgiveness  to  all  who  change  their  attitude 
and  desire  to  co-operate  with  the  Law  of  Good  so  far 
as  they  know  it.  The  laws  of  Nature  do  not  act 
vindictively ;  and  through  all  theological  formularies 
and  traditional  interpretations  let  us  realize  that  what 
we  are  dealing  with  is  the  supreme  law  of  our  own 
being;  and  it  is  on  the  basis  of  this  natural  law  that 
we  find  such  declarations  as  that  in  Ezek,  xviii.,  22, 
which  tells  that  if  we  forsake  our  evil  ways  our  past 
transgressions  shall  never  again  be  mentioned  to  us. 
We  are  dealing  with  the  great  principles  of  our  sub- 
jective being,  and  our  misuse  of  them  in  the  past  can 
never  make  them  change  their  inherent  law  of  action. 
If  our  method  of  using  them  in  the  past  has  brought 
us  sorrow,  fear  and  trouble,  we  have  only  to  fall  back 
on  the  law  that  if  we  reverse  the  cause  the  effects  will 


In  Touch  with  Suh-conscious  Mind.         103 

be  reversed  also ;  and  so  what  we  have  to  do  is  simply 
to  reverse  our  mental  attitude  and  then  endeavour  to 
act  up  to  the  new  one.  The  sincere  endeavour  to  act 
up  to  our  new  mental  attitude  is  essential,  for  we 
cannot  really  think  in  one  way  and  act  in  another; 
but  our  repeated  failures  to  fully  act  as  we  would 
wish  must  not  discourage  us.  It  is  the  sincere  in- 
tention that  is  the  essential  thing,  and  this  will  in  time 
release  us  from  the  bondage  of  habits  which  at  pres- 
ent seem  almost  insuperable. 

The  initial  step,  then,  consists  in  determining  to 
picture  the  Universal  Mind  as  the  ideal  of  all  we  could 
wish  it  to  be  both  to  ourselves  and  to  others,  together 
with  the  endeavour  to  reproduce  this  ideal,  however 
imperfectly,  in  our  own  life;  and  this  step  having 
been  taken,  we  can  then  cheerfully  look  upon  it  as 
our  ever-present  Friend,  providing  all  good,  giiard- 
ing  from  all  danger,  and  guiding  us  with  all  counsel. 
Gradually  as  the  habit  of  thus  regarding  the  Uni- 
versal Mind  grows  upon  us,  we  shall  find  that  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  we  have  been  considering, 
it  will  become  more  and  more  personal  to  us,  and  in 
response  to  our  desire  its  inherent  intelligence  will 
make  itself  more  and  more  clearly  perceptible  within 
as  a  power  of  perceiving  truth  far  beyond  any  state- 
ment of  it  that  we  could  formulate  by  merely  intel- 
lectual investigation.  Similarly  if  we  think  of  it  as 
a  great  power  devoted  to  supplying  all  our  needs,  we 


I04  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

shall  impress  this  character  also  upon  it,  and  by  the 
law  of  subjective  mind  it  will  proceed  to  enact  the 
part  of  that  special  providence  which  we  have  credited 
it  with  being;  and  if,  beyond  the  general  care  of  our 
concerns,  we  would  draw  to  ourselves  some  particular 
benefit,  the  same  rule  holds  good  of  impressing  our 
desire  upon  the  Universal  Subjective  Mind.  And  if 
we  realize  that  above  and  beyond  all  this  we  want 
something  still  greater  and  more  enduring,  the 
building-up  of  character  and  unfolding  of  our  powers 
so  that  we  may  expand  into  fuller  and  yet  fuller 
measures  of  joyous  and  joy-giving  Life,  still  the  same 
rule  holds  good :  convey  to  the  Universal  Mind  the 
suggestion  of  the  desire,  and  by  the  law  of  relation 
between  subjective  and  objective  mind  this  too  will 
be  fulfilled.  And  thus  the  deepest  problems  of 
philosophy  bring  us  back  to  the  old  statement  of  the 
Law : — Ask  and  ye  shall  receive,  seek  and  ye  shall 
find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  This  is 
the  summing-up  of  the  natural  law  of  the  relation  be- 
tween us  and  the  Divine  Mind.  It  is  thus  no  vain 
boast  that  Mental  Science  can  enable  us  to  make  our 
lives  what  we  will.  We  must  start  from  where  we 
are  now,  and  by  rightly  estimating  our  relation  to  the 
Divine  Universal  Mind  we  can  gradually  grow  into 
any  conditions  we  desire,  provided  we  first  make 
ourselves  in  habitual  mental  attitude  the  person  who 
corresponds  to  those  conditions  :  for  we  can  never  get 


In  Touch  zi'ith  Sub-conscious  Mind.         105 

over  the  law  of  correspondence,  and  the  externahza- 
tion  will  always  be  in  accord  with  the  internal  prin- 
ciple that  gives  rise  to  it.  And  to  this  law  there  is 
no  limit.  What  it  can  do  for  us  to-day  it  can  do  to- 
morrow, and  through  all  that  procession  of  to-mor- 
rows that  loses  itself  in  the  dim  vistas  of  eternity.  Be- 
lief in  limitation  is  the  one  and  only  thing  that  causes 
limitation,  because  we  thus  impress  limitation  upon 
the  creative  principle;  and  in  proportion  as  we  lay 
that  belief  aside  our  boundaries  will  expand,  and  in- 
creasing life  and  more  abundant  blessing  will  be  ours. 
But  we  must  not  ignore  our  responsibilities. 
Trained  thought  is  far  more  powerful  than  untrained, 
and  therefore  the  more  deeply  we  penetrate  into 
Mental  Science  the  more  carefully  we  must  guard 
against  all  thoughts  and  words  expressive  of  even 
the  most  modified  form  of  ill-will.  Gossip,  tale- 
bearing, sneering  laughter,  are  not  in  accord  with 
the  principles  of  Mental  Science;  and  similarly  even 
our  smallest  thoughts  of  good  carry  with  them  a 
seed  of  good  which  will  assuredly  bear  fruit  in  due 
time.  This  is  not  mere  "  goodie,  goodie,"  but  an  im- 
portant lesson  in  Mental  Science,  for  our  subjective 
mind  takes  its  colour  from  our  settled  mental  habits, 
and  an  occasional  affirmation  or  denial  will  not  be 
sufficient  to  change  it;  and  we  must  therefore  culti- 
vate that  tone  which  we  wish  to  see  reproduced  in  our 
conditions  whether  of  body,  mind,  or  circumstance. 


io6  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

In  these  lectures  my  purpose  has  been,  not  so  much 
to  give  specific  rules  of  practice  as  to  lay  down  the 
broad  general  principles  of  Mental  Science  which  will 
enable  the  student  to  form  rules  for  himself.  In 
every  walk  in  life,  book  knowledge  is  only  a  means 
to  an  end.  Books  can  only  direct  us  where  to  look 
and  what  to  look  for,  but  we  must  do  the  finding  for 
ourselves;  therefore,  if  you  have  really  grasped  the 
principles  of  the  science,  you  will  frame  rules  of  your 
own  which  will  give  you  better  results  than  any  at- 
tempt to  follow  somebody  else's  method,  which  was 
successful  in  their  hands  precisely  because  it  was 
theirs.  Never  fear  to  be  yourself.  If  Mental  Science 
does  not  teach  you  to  be  yourself  it  teaches  you  noth- 
ing. Yourself,  more  yourself,  and  yet  more  yourself 
is  what  you  want ;  only  with  the  knowledge  that  the 
true  self  includes  the  inner  and  higher  self  which  is 
always  in  immediate  touch  with  the  Great  Divine 
Mind. 

As  Walt  Whitman  says : — "  You  are  not  all  in- 
cluded between  your  hat  and  your  boots." 


The  grozmng  popularity  of  the  Edinburgh  Lectures 
on  Mental  Science  has  led  me  to  add  to  the  present 
edition  three  more  sections  on  Body,  Soul,  and  Spirit, 
zvhich  it  is  hoped  will  prove  useful  by  rendering  the 
principles  of  the  inter-action  of  these  three  factors 
somewhat  clearer. 


XIV. 
THE    BODY. 

Some  students  find  it  difficult  to  realize  that  men- 
tal action  can  produce  any  real  effect  upon  material 
substance;  but  if  this  is  not  possible  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  Mental  Science,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to 
produce  improved  conditions  both  of  body  and  en- 
vironment, so  that  the  ultimate  manifestation  aimed 
at  is  always  one  of  demonstration  upon  the  plane  of 
the  visible  and  concrete.  Therefore  to  afford  convic- 
tion of  an  actual  connection  between  the  visible  and 
the  invisible,  between  the  inner  and  the  outer,  is  one 
of  the  most  important  points  in  the  course  of  our 
studies. 

That  such  a  connection  must  exist  is  proved  by 
metaphysical  argument  in  answer  to  the  question, 
"  How  did  anything  ever  come  into  existence  at  all  ?  " 
And  the  whole  creation,  ourselves  included,  stands 
as  evidence  to  this  great  truth.  But  to  many  minds 
merely  abstract  argument  is  not  completely  convinc- 
ing, or  at  any  rate  it  becomes  more  convincing  if  it 
is  supported  by  something  of  a  more  concrete  na- 
ture; and  for  such  readers  I  would  give  a  few  hints 

as  to  the  correspondence  between  the  physical  and 

107 


io8  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

the  mental.  The  subject  covers  a  very  wide  area, 
and  the  Hmited  space  at  my  disposal  will  only  allow 
me  to  touch  on  a  few  suggestive  points,  still  these 
may  be  sufficient  to  show  that  the  abstract  argument 
has  some  corresponding  facts  at  the  back  of  it. 

One  of  the  most  convincing  proofs  I  have  seen  is 
that  afforded  by  the  "  biometre,"  a  little  instrument 
invented  by  an  eminent  French  scientist,  the  late  Dr. 
Hippolyte  Baraduc,  which  shows  the  action  of  what 
he  calls  the  "  vital  current."  His  theory  is  that  this 
force,  whatever  its  actual  nature  may  be,  is  uni- 
versally present,  and  operates  as  a  current  of  physical 
vitality  perpetually,  flowing  with  more  or  less  energy 
through  every  physical  organism,  and  which  can,  at 
any  rate  to  some  extent,  be  controlled  by  the  power 
of  the  human  will.  The  theory  in  all  its  minutiae  is 
exceedingly  elaborate,  and  has  been  described  in  de- 
tail in  Dr.  Baraduc's  published  works.  In  a  conver- 
sation I  had  with  him  about  a  year  ago,  he  told  me 
he  was  writing  another  book  which  would  throw  fur- 
ther light  on  the  subject,  but  a  few  months  later  he 
passed  over  before  it  was  presented  to  the  world. 
The  fact,  however,  which  I  wish  to  put  before  the 
reader,  is  the  ocular  demonstration  of  the  connection 
between  mind  and  matter,  which  an  experiment  with 
the  biometre  affords. 

The  instrument  consists  of  a  bell  glass,  from  the 
inside  of  which  is  suspended  a  copper  needle  by  a 


The  Body.  109 

fine  silken  thread.  Tlie  glass  stands  on  a  wooden 
support,  below  which  is  a  coil  of  copper  wire,  which, 
however,  is  not  connected  with  any  battery  or  other 
apparatus,  and  merely  serves  to  condense  the  current. 
Below  the  needle,  inside  the  glass,  there  is  a  circular 
card  divided  into  degrees  to  mark  the  action  of  the 
needle.  Two  of  these  instruments  are  placed  side 
by  side,  but  in  no  way  connected,  and  the  experi- 
menter then  holds  out  the  fingers  of  both  hands  to 
within  about  an  inch  of  the  glasses.  According  to 
the  theory,  the  current  enters  at  the  left  hand,  cir- 
culates through  the  body,  and  passes  out  at  the  right 
hand,  that  is  to  say,  there  is  an  indrawing  at  the  left 
and  a  giving-out  at  the  right,  thus  agreeing  with 
Reichenbach's  experiments  on  the  polarity  of  the 
human  body. 

I  must  confess  that,  although  I  had  read  Dr. 
Baraduc's  book,  "  Les  Vibrations  Humaines,"  I  ap- 
proached the  instrument  in  a  very  sceptical  frame  of 
mind;  but  I  was  soon  convinced  of  my  error.  At 
first,  holding  a  mental  attitude  of  entire  relaxation, 
I  found  that  the  left-hand  needle  was  attracted 
through  twenty  degrees,  while  the  right-hand  needle, 
the  one  affected  by  the  out-going  current,  was  re- 
pelled through  ten  degrees.  After  allowing  the  in- 
strument to  return  to  its  normal  equilibrium  I  again 
approached  it  with  the  purpose  of  seeing  whether  a 
change  of  mental  attitude  would  in  the  least  modify 


no  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

the  flow  of  current.  This  time  I  assumed  the  strong- 
est mental  attitude  I  could  with  the  intention  of  send- 
ing out  a  flow  through  the  right  hand,  and  the  result 
as  compared  with  the  previous  one  was  remarkable. 
The  left-hand  needle  was  now  attracted  only  through 
ten  degrees,  while  the  right-hand  one  was  deflected 
through  something  over  thirty,  thus  clearly  indicating 
the  influence  of  the  mental  faculties  in  modifying  the 
action  of  the  current.  I  may  mention  that  the  experi- 
ment was  made  in  the  presence  of  two  medical  men 
who  noted  the  movement  of  the  needles. 

I  will  not  here  stop  to  discuss  the  question  of 
what  the  actual  constitution  of  this  current  of  vital 
energy  may  be — it  is  sufficient  for  our  present  pur- 
pose that  it  is  there,  and  the  experiment  I  have  de- 
scribed brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  fact  of  a  cor- 
respondence between  our  own  mental  attitude  and  the 
invisible  forces  of  nature.  Even  if  we  say  that  this 
current  is  some  form  of  electricity,  and  that  the  vari- 
ation of  its  action  is  determined  by  changes  in  the 
polarization  of  the  atoms  of  the  body,  then  this 
change  of  polarity  is  the  result  of  mental  action;  so 
that  the  quickening  or  retarding  of  the  cosmic  current 
is  equally  the  result  of  the  mental  attitude  whether  we 
suppose  our  mental  force  to  act  directly  upon  the  cur- 
rent itself  or  indirectly  by  inducing  changes  in  the 
molecular  structure  of  the  body.  Whichever  hy- 
pothesis we  adopt  the  conclusion  is  the  same,  namely, 


The  Body.  iii 

that  the  mind  has  power  to  open  or  close  the  door 
to  invisible  forces  in  such  a  way  that  the  result  of 
the  mental  action  becomes  apparent  on  the  material 
plane. 

Now,  investigation  shows  that  the  physical  body 
is  a  mechanism  specially  adapted  for  the  transmuta- 
tion of  the  inner  or  mental  power  into  modes  of 
external  activity.  We  know  from  medical  science 
that  the  whole  body  is  traversed  by  a  network  of 
nerves  which  serve  as  the  channels  of  communication 
between  the  indwelling  spiritual  ego,  which  we  call 
mind,  and  the  functions  of  the  external  organism. 
This  nervous  system  is  dual.  One  system,  known  as 
the  Sympathetic,  is  the  channel  for  all  those  activities 
which  are  not  consciously  directed  by  our  volition, 
such  as  the  operation  of  the  digestive  organs,  the  re- 
pair of  the  daily  wear  and  tear  of  the  tissues,  and  the 
like.  The  other  system,  known  as  the  Voluntary  or 
Cerebro-spinal  system,  is  the  channel  through  which 
we  receive  conscious  perception  from  the  physical 
senses  and  exercise  control  over  the  movements  of  the 
body.  This  system  has  its  centre  in  the  brain,  while 
the  other  has  its  centre  in  a  ganglionic  mass  at  the 
back  of  the  stomach  known  as  the  solar  plexus,  and 
sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  abdominal  brain.  The 
cerebro-spinal  system  is  the  channel  of  our  volitional 
or  conscious  mental  action,  and  the  sympathetic  sys- 
tem is  the  channel  of  that  mental  action  which  un- 


112  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

consciously  supports  the  vital  functions  of  the  body. 
Thus  the  cerebro-spinal  system  is  the  organ  of  con- 
scious mind  and  the  sympathetic  is  that  of  sub-con- 
scious mind. 

But  the  interaction  of  conscious  and  subconscious 
mind  requires  a  similar  interaction  between  the  cor- 
responding systems  of  nerves,  and  one  conspicuous 
connection  by  which  this  is  provided  is  the  "  vagus  " 
nerve.  This  nerve  passes  out  of  the  cerebral  region 
as  a  portion  of  the  voluntary  system,  and  through  it 
we  control  the  vocal  organs;  then  it  passes  onwards 
to  the  thorax  sending  out  branches  to  the  heart  and 
lungs ;  and  finally,  passing  through  the  diaphragm,  it 
loses  the  outer  coating  which  distinguishes  the  nerves 
of  the  voluntary  system  and  becomes  identified  with 
those  of  the  sympathetic  system,  so  forming  a  con- 
necting link  between  the  two  and  making  the  man 
physically  a  single  entity. 

Similarly  different  areas  of  the  brain  indicate 
their  connection  with  the  objective  and  subjective  ac- 
tivities of  the  mind  respectively,  and  speaking  in  a 
general  way  we  may  assign  the  frontal  portion  of 
the  brain  to  the  former  and  the  posterior  portion  to 
the  latter,  while  the  intermediate  portion  partakes  of 
the  character  of  both. 

The  intuitional  faculty  has  its  correspondence  in 
this  upper  area  of  the  brain  situated  between  the 
frontal  and   posterior  portions,   and  physiologically 


The  Body.  113 

speaking,  it  is  here  that  intuitive  ideas  find  entrance. 
These  at  first  are  more  or  less  unformed  and  general- 
ized in  character,  but  are  nevertheless  perceived  by 
the  conscious  mind,  otherwise  we  should  not  be  aware 
of  them  at  all.  Then  the  effort  of  nature  is  to  bring 
these  ideas  into  more  definite  and  usable  shape,  so  the 
conscious  mind  lays  hold  of  them  and  induces  a  cor- 
responding vibratory  current  in  the  voluntary  system 
of  nerves,  and  this  in  turn  induces  a  similar  current 
in  the  involuntary  system,  thus  handing  the  idea  over 
to  the  subjective  mind.  The  vibratory  current  which 
had  first  descended  from  the  apex  of  the  brain  to  the 
frontal  brain  and  thus  through  the  voluntary  system 
to  the  solar  plexus  is  now  reversed  and  ascends  from 
the  solar  plexus  through  the  sympathetic  system  to 
the  posterior  brain,  this  return  current  indicating  the 
action  of  the  subjective  mind. 

If  we  were  to  remove  the  surface  portion  of  the 
apex  of  the  brain  we  should  find  immediately  below 
it  the  shining  belt  of  brain  substance  called  the  "  cor- 
pus callosum."  This  is  the  point  of  union  between 
the  subjective  and  objective,  and  as  the  current  re- 
turns from  the  solar  plexus  to  this  point  it  is  restored 
to  the  objective  portion  of  the  brain  in  a  fresh  form 
which  it  has  acquired  by  the  silent  alchemy  of  the 
subjective  mind.  Thus  the  conception  which  was 
at  first  only  vaguely  recognized  is  restored  to  the 
objective   mind   in   a   definite   and   workable    form, 


114  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

and  then  the  objective  mind,  acting  through  the 
frontal  brain — the  area  of  comparison  and  analysis 
— proceeds  to  work  upon  a  clearly  perceived  idea 
and  to  bring  out  the  potentialities  that  are  latent 
in  it. 

It  must  of  course  be  borne  in  mind  that  I  am  here 
speaking  of  the  mental  ego  in  that  mode  of  its  ex- 
istence with  which  we  are  most  familiar,  that  is  as 
clothed  in  flesh,  though  there  may  be  much  to  say  as 
to  other  modes  of  its  activity.  But  for  our  daily  life 
w^e  have  to  consider  ourselves  as  we  are  in  that  aspect 
of  life,  and  from  this  point  of  view  the  physiological 
correspondence  of  the  body  to  the  action  of  the  mind 
is  an  important  item;  and  therefore,  although  we 
must  always  remember  that  the  origin  of  ideas  is 
purely  mental,  we  must  not  forget  that  on  the  physi- 
cal plane  every  mental  action  implies  a  corresponding 
molecular  action  in  the  brain  and  in  the  two-fold  ner- 
vous system. 

If,  as  the  old  Elizabethan  poet  says,  "  the  soul  is 
form,  and  doth  the  body  make,"  then  it  is  clear  that 
the  physical  organism  must  be  a  mechanical  arrange- 
ment as  specially  adapted  for  the  use  of  the  soul's 
powers  as  a  steam-engine  is  for  the  power  of  steam; 
and  it  is  the  recognition  of  this  reciprocity  between 
the  two  that  is  the  basis  of  all  spiritual  or  mental 
healing,  and  therefore  the  study  of  this  mechanical 
adaptation  is  an  important  branch  of  Mental  Science. 


The  Body.  115 

Only  we  must  not  forget  that  it  is  the  effect  and  not 
the  cause. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  important  to  remember  that 
such  a  thing  as  reversal  of  the  relation  between  cause 
and  effect  is  possible,  just  as  the  same  apparatus  may 
be  made  to  generate  mechanical  power  by  the  applica- 
tion of  electricity,  or  to  generate  electricity  by  the  ap- 
plication of  mechanical  power.  And  the  importance 
of  this  principle  consists  in  this.  There  is  always  a 
tendency  for  actions  which  were  at  first  voluntary 
to  become  automatic,  that  is,  to  pass  from  the  region 
of  conscious  mind  into  that  of  subconscious  mind,  and 
to  acquire  a  permanent  domicile  there.  Professor 
Elmer  Gates,  of  Washington,  has  demonstrated  this 
physiologically  in  his  studies  of  brain  formation.  He 
tells  us  that  every  thought  produces  a  slight  molecular 
change  in  the  substance  of  the  brain,  and  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  sort  of  thought  causes  a  repetition 
of  the  same  molecular  action  until  at  last  a  veritable 
channel  is  formed  in  the  brain  substance,  which  can 
only  be  eradicated  by  a  reverse  process  of  thought. 
In  this  way  "  grooves  of  thought  "  are  very  literal 
things,  and  when  once  established  the  vibrations  of 
the  cosmic  currents  flow  automatically  through  them 
and  thus  react  upon  the  mind  by  a  process  the  reverse 
of  that  by  which  our  voluntary  and  intentional  in- 
drawing  from  the  invisible  is  affected.  In  this  way 
are  formed  what  we  call  "  habits,"  and  hence  the  im- 


ii6  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

portance  of  controlling  our  thinking  and  guarding  it 
against  undesirable  ideas. 

But  on  the  other  hand  this  reactionary  process  may 
be  used  to  confirm  good  and  life-giving  modes  of 
thought,  so  that  by  a  knowledge  of  its  laws  we  may 
enlist  even  the  physical  body  itself  in  the  building  up 
of  that  perfectly  whole  personality,  the  attainment  of 
which  is  the  aim  and  object  of  our  studies. 


XV. 

THE    SOUL. 

Having  now  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  adaptation 
of  the  physical  organism  to  the  action  of  the  mind  we 
must  next  realize  that  the  mind  itself  is  an  organism 
which  is  in  like  manner  adapted  to  the  action  of  a 
still  higher  power,  only  here  the  adaptation  is  one  of 
mental  faculty.  As  with  other  invisible  forces  all  we 
can  know  of  the  mind  is  by  observing  what  it  does, 
but  with  this  difference,  that  since  we  ourselves  are 
this  mind,  our  observation  is  an  interior  observation 
of  states  of  consciousness.  In  this  way  we  recognize 
certain  faculties  of  our  mind,  the  working  order  of 
which  I  have  considered  at  page  84 ;  but  the  point  to 
which  I  would  now  draw  attention  is  that  these  fac- 
ulties always  work  under  the  influence  of  something 
which  stimulates  them,  and  this  stimulus  may  come 
either  from  without  through  the  external  senses,  or 
from  within  by  the  consciousness  of  something  not 
perceptible  on  the  physical  plane.  Now  the  recogni- 
tion of  these  interior  sources  of  stimulus  to  our  men- 
tal faculties,  is  an  important  branch  of  Mental  Sci- 
ence, because  the  mental  action  thus  set  up  works  just 
as  accurately  through  the  physical  correspondences  as 

117 


ii8  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

those  which  start  from  the  recognition  of  external 
facts,  and  therefore  the  control  and  right  direction  of 
these  inner  perceptions  is  a  matter  of  the  first  moment. 

The  faculties  most  immediately  concerned  are  the 
intuition  and  the  imagination,  but  it  is  at  first  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  the  intuition,  which  is  entirely  spon- 
taneous, can  be  brought  under  the  control  of  the  will. 
Of  course,  the  spontaneousness  of  the  intuition  cannot 
in  any  way  be  interfered  with,  for  if  it  ceased  to  act 
spontaneously  it  would  cease  to  be  the  intuition.  Its 
province  is,  as  it  were,  to  capture  ideas  from  the  in- 
finite and  present  them  to  the  mind  to  be  dealt  with 
at  its  discretion.  In  our  mental  constitution  the  in- 
tuition is  the  point  of  origination  and,  therefore,  for 
it  to  cease  to  act  spontaneously  would  be  for  it  to 
cease  to  act  at  all.  But  the  experience  of  a  long  suc- 
cession of  observers  shows  that  the  intuition  can  be 
trained  so  as  to  acquire  increased  sensitiveness  in 
some  particular  direction,  and  the  choice  of  the  gen- 
eral direction  is  determined  by  the  will  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

It  will  be  found  that  the  intuition  works  most  read- 
ily in  respect  to  those  subjects  which  most  habitually 
occupy  our  thought ;  and  according  to  the  physiolog- 
ical correspondences  which  we  have  been  considering 
this  might  be  accounted  for  on  the  physical  plane  by 
the  formation  of  brain-channels  specially  adapted  for 
the  induction  in  the  molecular  system  of  vibrations 


The  Soul.  119 

corresponding^  to  the  particular  class  of  ideas  in  ques- 
tion. But  of  course  we  must  remember  that  the  ideas 
themselves  are  not  caused  by  the  molecular  changes, 
but  on  the  contrary  are  the  cause  of  them;  and  it  is 
in  this  translation  of  thought  action  into  physical  ac- 
tion that  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  eternal 
mystery  of  the  descent  of  spirit  into  matter;  and  that 
though  we  may  trace  matter  through  successive  de- 
grees of  refinement  till  it  becomes  what,  in  compar- 
ison with  those  denser  modes  that  are  most  familiar, 
we  might  call  a  spiritual  substance,  yet  at  the  end  of 
it  it  is  not  the  intelligent  thinking  principle  itself. 
The  criterion  is  in  the  word  "  vibrations."  However 
delicately  etheric  the  substance  its  movement  com- 
mences by  the  vibration  of  its  particles,  and  a  vibra- 
tion is  a  wave  having  a  certain  length,  amplitude,  and 
periodicity,  that  is  to  say,  something  which  can  exist 
only  in  terms  of  space  and  time;  and  as  soon  as  we 
are  dealing  with  anything  capable  of  the  conception 
of  measurement  we  may  be  quite  certain  that  we  are 
not  dealing  with  Spirit  but  only  with  one  of  its 
vehicles.  Therefore  although  we  may  push  our 
analysis  of  matter  further  and  ever  further  back — and 
on  this  line  there  is  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  to  be 
gained — we  shall  find  that  the  point  at  which  spiritual 
power  or  thought-force  is  translated  into  etheric  or 
atomic  vibration  will  always  elude  us.  Therefore  we 
must  not  attribute  the  origination  of  ideas  to  molec- 


I20  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

ular  displacement  in  the  brain,  though,  by  the  re- 
action of  the  physical  upon  the  mental  which  I  have 
spoken  of  above,  the  formation  of  thought-channels 
in  the  grey  matter  of  the  brain  may  tend  to  facilitate 
the  reception  of  certain  ideas.  Some  people  are  ac- 
tually conscious  of  the  action  of  the  upper  portion  of 
the  brain  during  the  influx  of  an  intuition,  the  sensa- 
tion being  that  of  a  sort  of  expansion  in  that  brain 
area,  which  might  be  compared  to  the  opening  of  a 
valve  or  door ;  but  all  attempts  to  induce  the  inflow  of 
intuitive  ideas  by  the  physiological  expedient  of  try- 
ing to  open  this  valve  by  the  exercise  of  the  will 
should  be  discouraged  as  likely  to  prove  injurious  to 
the  brain,  I  believe  some  Oriental  systems  advocate 
this  method,  but  we  may  well  trust  the  mind  to  regu- 
late the  action  of  its  physical  channels  in  a  manner 
suitable  to  its  own  requirements,  instead  of  trying 
to  manipulate  the  mind  by  the  unnatural  forcing 
of  its  mechanical  instrument.  In  all  our  studies 
on  these  lines  we  must  remember  that  development 
is  always  by  perfectly  natural  growth  and  is  not 
brought  about  by  unduly  straining  any  portion  of 
the  system. 

The  fact,  however,  remains  that  the  intuition 
works  most  freely  in  that  direction  in  which  we  most 
habitually  concentrate  our  thought;  and  in  practice 
it  will  be  found  that  the  best  way  to  cultivate  the 
intuition  in  any  particular  direction  is  to  meditate 


The  Soul.  121 

upon  the  abstract  principles  of  that  particular  class  of 
subjects  rather  than  only  to  consider  particular  cases. 
Perhaps  the  reason  is  that  particular  cases  have  to  do 
with  specific  phenomena,  that  is  with  the  law  work- 
ing under  certain  limiting  conditions,  whereas  the 
principles  of  the  law  are  not  limited  by  local  condi- 
tions, and  so  habitual  meditation  on  them  sets  our 
intuition  free  to  range  in  an  infinitude  where  the  con- 
ception of  antecedent  conditions  does  not  limit  it. 
Anyway,  whatever  may  be  the  theoretical  explana- 
tion, you  will  find  that  the  clear  grasp  of  abstract 
principles  in  any  direction  has  a  wonderfully  quick- 
ening efifect  upon  the  intuition  in  that  particular  di- 
rection. 

The  importance  of  recognizing  our  power  of  thus 
giving  direction  to  the  intuition  cannot  be  exag- 
gerated, for  if  the  mind  is  attuned  to  sympathy  with 
the  highest  phases  of  spirit  this  power  opens  the  door 
to  limitless  possibilities  of  knowledge.  In  its  highest 
workings  intuition  becomes  inspiration,  and  certain 
great  records  of  fundamental  truths  and  supreme 
mysteries  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  thou- 
sands of  generations  bequeathed  by  deep  thinkers  of 
old  can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  supposition  that 
their  earnest  thought  on  the  Originating  Spirit, 
coupled  with  a  reverent  worship  of  It,  opened  the 
door,  through  their  intuitive  faculty,  to  the  most 
sublime  inspirations  regarding  the  supreme  truths  of 


122  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

the  universe  both  with  respect  to  the  evohition  of  the 
cosmos  and  to  the  evolution  of  the  individual.  Among 
such  records  explanatory  of  the  supreme  mysteries 
three  stand  out  pre-eminent,  all  bearing  witness  to  the 
same  ONE  Truth,  and  each  throwing  light  upon  the 
other ;  and  these  three  are  the  Bible,  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, and  the  Pack  of  Cards — a  curious  combination 
some  will  think,  but  I  hope  in  another  volume  of  this 
series  to  be  able  to  justify  my  present  statement.  I 
allude  to  these  three  records  here  because  the  unity 
of  principle  which  they  exhibit,  notwithstanding  their 
wide  divergence  of  method,  affords  a  standing  proof 
that  the  direction  taken  by  the  intuition  is  largely  de- 
termined by  the  will  of  the  individual  opening  the 
mind  in  that  particular  direction. 

Very  closely  allied  to  the  intuition  is  the  faculty 
of  imagination.  This  does  not  mean  mere  fancies, 
which  we  dismiss  without  further  consideration,  but 
our  power  of  forming  mental  images  upon  which  we 
dwell.  These,  as  I  have  said  in  the  earlier  part  of 
this  book,  form  a  nucleus  which,  on  its  own  plane, 
calls  into  action  the  universal  Law  of  Attraction,  thus 
giving  rise  to  the  principle  of  Growth.  The  relation 
of  the  intuition  to  the  imagination  is  that  the  intui- 
tion grasps  an  idea  from  the  Great  Universal  Mind, 
in  which  all  things  subsist  as  potentials,  and  presents 
it  to  the  imagination  in  its  essence  rather  than  in  a 
definite  form,  and  then  our  image-building  faculty 


The  Soul.  123 

gives  it  a  clear  and  definite  form  which  it  presents 
before  the  mental  vision,  and  which  we  then  vivify- 
by  letting  our  thought  dwell  upon  it,  thus  infusing 
our  own  personality  into  it,  and  so  providing  that 
personal  element  through  which  the  specific  action  of 
the  universal  law  relatively  to  the  particular  individ- 
ual always  takes  place.*  Whether  our  thought  shall 
be  allowed  thus  to  dwell  upon  a  particular  mental 
image  depends  on  our  own  will,  and  our  exercise  of 
our  will  depends  on  our  belief  in  our  power  to  use 
it  so  as  to  disperse  or  consolidate  a  given  mental 
image;  and  finally  our  belief  in  our  power  to  do 
this  depends  on  our  recognition  of  our  relation  to 
God,  Who  is  the  source  of  all  power;  for  it  is  an 
invariable  truth  that  our  life  will  take  its  whole 
form,  tone,  and  color  from  our  conception  of  God, 
whether  that  conception  be  positive  or  negative, 
and  the  sequence  by  which  it  does  so  is  that  now 
given. 

In  this  way,  then,  our  intuition  is  related  to  our 
imagination,  and  this  relation  has  its  physiological 
correspondence  in  the  circulus  of  molecular  vibrations 
I  have  described  above,  which,  having  its  commence- 
ment in  the  higher  or  "  ideal  "  portion  of  the  brain 
flows  through  the  voluntary  nervous  system,  the 
physical  channel  of  objective  mind,  returning  through 
the  sympathetic  system,  the  physical  channel  of  sub- 
*  See  my  "  Dor^  Lectures." 


124  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

jective  mind,  thus  completing  the  circuit  and  being 
then  restored  to  the  frontal  brain,  where  it  is  con- 
sciously modelled  into  clear-cut  forms  suited  to  a  spe- 
cific purpose. 

In  all  this  the  power  of  the  will  as  regulating  the 
action  both  of  the  intuition  and  the  imagination  must 
never  be  lost  sight  of,  for  without  such  a  central  con- 
trolling power  we  should  lose  all  sense  of  individual- 
ity; and  hence  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  evolutionary 
process  is  to  evolve  individual  wills  actuated  by  such 
beneficence  and  enlightenment  as  shall  make  them 
fitting  vehicles  for  the  outflowing  of  the  Supreme 
Spirit,  which  has  hitherto  created  cosmically,  and  can 
now  carry  on  the  creative  process  to  its  highest  stages 
only  through  conscious  union  with  the  individual; 
for  this  is  the  only  possible  solution  of  the  great 
problem,  How  can  the  Universal  Mind  act  in  all 
its  fulness  upon  the  plane  of  the  individual  and 
particular? 

This  is  the  ultimate  of  evolution,  and  the  success- 
ful evolution  of  the  individual  depends  on  his  recog- 
nizing this  ultimate  and  working  towards  it;  and 
therefore  this  should  be  the  great  end  of  our  studies. 
There  is  a  correspondence  in  the  constitution  of  the 
body  to  the  faculties  of  the  soul,  and  there  is  a  sim- 
ilar correspondence  in  the  faculties  of  the  soul  to  the 
power  of  the  All-originating  Spirit;  and  as  in  all 
other  adaptations  of  specific  vehicles  so  also  here,  we 


The  Soul.  125 

can  never  correctly  understand  the  nature  of  the  ve- 
hicle and  use  it  rightly  until  we  realize  the  nature  of 
the  power  for  the  working  of  which  it  is  specially 
adapted.  Let  us.  then,  in  conclusion  briefly  consider 
the  nature  of  that  power. 


XVI. 

THE    SPIRIT. 

What  must  the  Supreme  All-originating  Spirit  be 
in  itself?  That  is  the  question  before  us.  Let  us  start 
with  one  fact  regarding  it  about  which  we  cannot 
have  any  possible  doubt — it  is  creative.  If  it  were 
not  creative  nothing  could  come  into  existence ;  there- 
fore we  know  that  its  purpose,  or  Law  of  Tendency, 
must  be  to  bring  individual  lives  into  existence  and 
to  surround  them  with  a  suitable  environment.  Now 
a  power  which  has  this  for  its  inherent  nature  must 
be  a  kindly  power.  The  Spirit  of  Life  seeking  ex- 
pression in  individual  lives  can  have  no  other  inten- 
tion towards  them  than  "  that  they  might  have  life, 
and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly."  To 
suppose  the  opposite  would  be  a  contradiction  in 
terms.  It  would  be  to  suppose  the  Eternal  Principle 
of  Life  acting  against  itself,  expressing  itself  as  the 
reverse  of  what  it  is,  in  which  case  it  would  not  be 
expressing  itself  but  expressing  its  opposite;  so  that 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  the  Spirit  of  Life  act- 
ing otherwise  than  to  the  increase  of  life.  This  is 
as  yet  only  imperfectly  apparent  by  reason  of  our  im- 
perfect apprehension  of  the  position,  and  our  conse- 

126 


The  Spirit.  127 

quent  want  of  conscious  unity  with  the  ONE  Eternal 
Life.  As  our  consciousness  of  unity  becomes  more 
perfect  so  will  the  life-givingness  of  the  Spirit  be- 
come more  apparent.  But  in  the  realm  of  principles 
the  purely  Affirmative  and  Life-giving  nature  of  the 
All-originating  Spirit  is  an  unavoidable  conclusion. 
Now  by  what  name  can  we  call  such  an  inherent  de- 
sire to  add  to  the  fulness  of  any  individual  life — that 
is,  to  make  it  stronger,  brighter,  and  happier?  If 
this  is  not  Love,  then  I  do  not  know  what  else  it  is ; 
and  so  we  are  philosophically  led  to  the  conclusion 
that  Love  is  the  prime  moving  power  of  the  Creating 
Spirit. 

But  expression  is  impossible  without  Form.  What 
Form,  then,  should  Love  give  to  the  vehicles  of  its 
expression?  By  the  hypothesis  of  the  case  it  could 
not  find  self-expression  in  forms  that  were  hateful 
or  repugnant  to  it — therefore  the  only  logical  cor- 
relative of  Love  is  Beauty.  Beauty  is  not  yet  uni- 
versally manifested  for  the  same  reason  that  Life  is 
not,  namely,  lack  of  recognition  of  its  Principle ;  but, 
that  the  principle  of  Beauty  is  inherent  in  the  Eternal 
Mind  is  demonstrated  by  all  that  is  beautiful  in  the 
world  in  which  we  live. 

These  considerations  show  us  that  the  inherent  na- 
ture of  the  Spirit  must  consist  in  the  eternal  inter- 
action of  Love  and  Beauty  as  the  Active  and  Passive 
polarity  of  Being.     Then  this  is  the  Power  for  the 


128  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

working  of  which  our  soul  faculties  are  specially 
adapted.  And  when  this  purpose  of  the  adaptation  is 
recognized  we  begin  to  get  some  insight  into  the  way 
in  which  our  intuition,  imagination,  and  will  should 
be  exercized.  By  training  our  thought  to  habitually 
dwell  upon  this  dual-unity  of  the  Originating  Forces 
of  Love  and  Beauty  the  intuition  is  rendered  more 
and  more  sensitive  to  ideas  emanating  from  this  su- 
preme source,  and  the  imagining  faculty  is  trained 
in  the  formation  of  images  corresponding  to  such 
ideas ;  while  on  the  physical  side  the  molecular  struc- 
ture of  the  brain  and  body  becomes  more  and  more 
perfectly  adjusted  to  the  generating  of  vibratory  cur- 
rents tending  to  the  outward  manifestation  of  the 
Originating  Principle.  Thus  the  whole  man  is 
brought  into  unison  with  himself  and  with  the  Su- 
preme Source  of  Life,  so  that,  in  the  words  of  St. 
Paul,  he  is  being  day  by  day  renewed  after  the  image 
of  Him  that  created  him. 

Our  more  immediately  personal  recognition  of  the 
All-originating  Love  and  Beauty  will  thus  flow  out 
as  peace  of  mind,  health  of  body,  discretion  in  the 
management  of  our  affairs,  and  power  in  the  carry- 
ing out  of  our  undertakings ;  and  as  we  advance  to 
a  wider  conception  of  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of 
Love  and  Beauty  in  its  infinite  possibilities,  so  our 
intuition  will  find  a  wider  scope  and  our  field  of  ac- 
tivity will  expand  along  with  it — in  a  word  we  shall 


The  Spirit.  129 

discover  that  our  individuality  is  growing,  and  that 
we  are  becoming  more  truly  ourselves  than  we  ever 
were  before. 

The  question  of  the  specific  lines  on  which  the  in- 
dividual may  be  most  perfectly  trained  into  such 
recognition  of  his  true  relation  to  the  All-embracing 
Spirit  of  Life  is  therefore  of  supreme  importance,  but 
it  is  also  of  such  magnitude  that  even  to  briefly  sketch 
its  broad  outlines  would  require  a  volume  to  itself, 
and  I  will  therefore  not  attempt  to  enter  upon  it  here, 
my  present  purpose  being  only  to  offer  some  hints  of 
the  principles  underlying  that  wonderful  three-fold 
unity  of  Body,  Soul,  and  Spirit  which  we  all  know 
ourselves  to  be. 

We  are  as  yet  only  at  the  commencement  of  the 
path  which  leads  to  the  realization  of  this  unity  in 
the  full  development  of  all  its  powers,  but  others  have 
trodden  the  way  before  us,  from  whose  experiences 
we  may  learn;  and  not  least  among  these  was  the 
illustrious  founder  of  the  Most  Christian  Fraternity 
of  the  Rosicrucians.  This  master-mind,  setting  out 
in  his  youth  with  the  intention  of  going  to  Jerusa- 
lem, changed  the  order  of  his  journey  and  first  so- 
journed for  three  years  in  the  symbolical  city  of  Dam- 
car,  in  the  mystical  country  of  Arabia,  then  for  about 
a  year  in  the  mystical  country  of  Egypt,  and  then  for 
two  years  in  the  mystical  country  of  Fez.  Then,  hav- 
ing during  these  six  years  learned  all  that  was  to  be 


130  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science. 

acquired  in  those  countries,  he  returned  to  his  native 
land  of  Germany,  where,  on  the  basis  of  the  knowl- 
edge he  had  thus  gained,  he  founded  the  Fraternity  R. 
C,  for  whose  instruction  he  wrote  the  mystical  books 
M.  and  T.  Then,  when  he  realized  that  his  work  in 
its  present  stage  was  accomplished,  he  of  his  own  free 
will  laid  aside  the  physical  body,  not,  it  is  recorded, 
by  decay,  or  disease,  or  ordinary  death,  but  by  the 
express  direction  of  the  Spirit  of  Life,  summing  up 
all  his  knowledge  in  the  words, 

"  Jesus  mihi  omnia." 

And  now  his  followers  await  the  coming  of  "  the  Ar- 
tist Elias,"  who  shall  bring  the  Magnum  Opus  to  its 
completion. 

"  Let  him  that  readeth  understand." 


THE  EDINBURGH  LECTURE  SERIES 

By  Judge  Thomas  Troward 


THE  EDINBURGH   LECTURES 
ON  MENTAL  SCIENCE 

This  is  the  first  of  the  "Edinburgh  Lecture  Series." 
Its  purpose  is  to  indicate  the  Natural  Principles 
governing  the  relation  between  mental  action  and 
material  conditions  and  thus  to  afford  the  student 
an  intelligible  starting  point  for  the  practical  study  of 
th5  subject. 

The  late  William  James  said  of  it:  "Far  and  away 
the  ablest  statement  of  that  philosophy  that  I  have 
met,  beautiful  in  its  sustained  clearness  of  thought 
and  style — a  really  classic  statement." 

"One  of  the  clearest,  most  logical  and  reverent,  and 
least  dogmatic  of  the  numerous  books  designed  to 
awaken  man  to  practical  consciousness  of  his  in- 
dwelling spiritual  powers." — St.  Paul  Dispatch. 

"The  author  reveals  himself  as  easily  the  pro- 
foundest  thinker  we  have  met  on  the  subject." — 
Boston  Transcript., 

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THE   TROWARD   INSPIRATIONAL   BOOKS 

THE    DORE    LECTURES   ON 
MENTAL  SCIENCE 

Judge  Troward  supplemented  his  line  of  reasoning 
in  the  "Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science,"  by  a 
new  series  of  lectures,  published  under  the  above 
title,  deriving  their  name  from  the  Dore  Gallery  in 
London,  where  the  lectures  were  delivered.  While 
his  second  volume  in  itself  is  scarcely  a  complete 
interpretation  of  Mental  Science,  it  is  a  valuable 
addendum  to  his  Edinburgh  Lectures,  the  two  volumes 
making  plain  to  the  seeker,  by  logical  and  scientific 
reasoning,  the  wonderful  truth  that  while  we  are  in- 
dividuals, yet  we  are  "one  with  the  Father,"  and 
possess  remarkable  power  in  ourselves  that  has 
hitherto  been  overlooked. 

This  book  was  recently  warmly  commended  in  a 
discourse  at  Westminster  Abbey  by  Archdeacon 
Wilberforce,  who  advised  his  hearers  to  read  the  work. 
The  chapters  are:  "Entering  Into  the  Spirit  of  It," 
"Individuality,"  "The  New  Thought  and  the  New 
Order,"  "The  Life  of  the  Spirit,"  "Alpha  and  Omega," 
"The  Creative  Power  of  Thought,"  "The  Great 
Affirmative,"  "  Christ  the  FulfilHng  of  the  Law,"  "The 
Story  of  Eden,"  "The  Worship  of  Ishi,"  "The 
Shepherd  and  the  Stone,"  "Salvation  is  of  the  Jews." 

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THE   CREATIVE    PROCESS   IN 
THE   INDIVIDUAL 

The  author  says:  "In  the  present  vokime  I  have 
endeavored  to  set  before  the  reader  the  conception 
of  a  sequence  of  creative  action,  commencing  with  the 
formation  of  the  globe  and  culminating  in  a  vista  of 
infinite  possibilities  attainable  by  every  one  who  fol- 
lows up  the  right  line  for  their  enfoldment and 

if  our  speculation  lead  us  to  the  conclusion  that  we 
have  reached  a  point  where  we  are  not  only  able,  but 
also  required,  by  the  law  of  our  own  being,  to  take  a 
more  active  part  in  our  personal  evolution  than  here- 
tofore, this  discovery  will  afford  us  a  new  outlook 
upon  life  and  widen  our  horizon  with'  fresh  interests 
and  brightening  hopes." 

"It  is  a  book  that  will  greatly  interest  all  who  are 
interested  in  New  Thought." — Springjield  (Mass.) 
Union. 

"In  the  advancement  of  his  argument  Mr.  Troward 
bases  his  conclusions  on  scientific  facts  known  and 
proved.  .  .  .  Above  all  his  book  is  a  study  for  the 
thinker." — Salt  Lake  Tribune. 

"The  book  will  repay  study  by  the  inspiration  it 
holds  for  the  philosophic  reader." — San  Francisco 
Chronicle. 

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